
Book 



¥ 




I 



COMMENDATIONS. 



I ~ 

I We are indebted to our brethern of the Press, and many 
•* friends, for the most flattering commendations of our com- 
pilation of the "Logic of Uistory," Ac, and wo make 
room for the following, as samples of the general whole : 

I From Gov. Seymour, of New York.] 

State of New York, Executive Department, 1 
' Albany, January ISth, 1864. j 

I Sir: — I have read with great interest that part of your 

' book entitled, "Five Hundred Political Texts," which you 
Bent me. I do not hesitate to say that it is a work which 
every friend of Constitutional Liberty should have in his 
I possession. No one who cares for public events can be 
' without it. It is not only of great importance at this 
time in its bearings upon the questions of the day, but it 
' is also a valuable contribution to the history of evils which 
now afflict our country. I hope that it will be widely 
circulated, and that all classes of conservative men will 
aid in its sale. Truly yours, &c., 

HORATIO SEYMOUR. 
To S. D. Carpenter, Esq., Madison, A\^^on8in. 

From the Conservative Members of^ttie 'Wisconsin Legis- 
lature.] 
Senate and Assembly Chambers, ) 
Capitol of Wisconsin, Feb. 13, 1863. J 
5. D. Carpenter: 

The undersigned Democratic members of the Legisla- 
ture of Wisconsin for the year 1864, having read your book 
so for as completed, entitled "Concentrated Extracts of 
Abolitionism"' or "Logic of History," beg leave to assure 
you that your efforts in producing a book so much needed 
in a crisis like this, is duly appreciated by us. This book 
ought to be iu the hands of every conservative man, for 
nothing can be so well calculated to open the eyes of the 
people to the long cherished aims and purposes of the 
radicals. Your book settles the question of "loyalty," 
and we trust you may succeed in placing it in the hands of 
all conservative men. 



John E. Thomas, 1st Dist. H. P. Reynolds, 6th Dist. 

Fred. S. Ellis, 2d Dist. W. K. Wilson, 6th Dist. 

G. L. Frost, 15th Dist. Fred. 0. Thorp, 4th Dist. 

Sat. Clark, 33d Dist. John R. Bohan, 3d Dist. 

J. II. Earnest, 13th Dist. J. D. Chyip, 23d Dist. 
Joseph Vilas, Jr., 19th Dist. ^ 

representatives. 



0. F. Jones, Dodge County. 

A. S. Sanborn, Dane. 

E. McGarry, Milwaukee. 
David Smoke, Manitowoc. 
Max. Bachuber, Dodge. 
J. W. Eviston, Milwaukee. 
Wm. Costigan, Waukesha. 
Thomas McLean, Calumet. 
Geo.|Kreis, Outagamie. 
JohnG. Daily, Dodge. 
H. Hildebrandt,Washington 

B. Ringle, 'Marathon. 
N. Boutin, Kewaunee. 



Geo. B. Smith, Dane. 
W. J. A9l;ams, Brown. 
Carl Zillier, Shebo3'gan. 
Robt. Hass, Jefferson. 
Robt. Cochrane, Marquette. 
Thos. Thornton, Manitowoc. 
David, Knab, Milwaukee. 
T. Dunn, *afayette. 
James Watts, Milwaukee. 
Anton Frey, Milwaukee. 
W.T.Bonni well, Jr., Ozaukee 
F. T. Zettler, Milwaukee. 



[From the Hon. L. B. Vilas, Chairman of the State Union 
Committee, of Wisconsin,] 

Madison, Feb. 19t, 1S64. 
S. D. Carpenter, Esq. 

Sir: The facts contained in your "Logic of History," 
ought to be read and pondered by every American citizen. 
Fanaticism and extreme views both North and South, to- 
gether with public corruption, are the fruitful sources of 
our national troubles. 

The sooner we learn the true causes and correct them, 
the sooner we shall have national unity, and its conse- 
quent blessings. If the people desire peace and unity, 
they must cease to do those things which inevitably pro- 
duces strife and disunion. The logic of all history proves 

1 



that with nations as well as individuals, what they sow 
they will reap. Trusting that the people in both sections 
will see the folly of thrusting their extreme opinions upon 
the other, and that your work may tend to produce this 
result, 

I am very truly Yours itc . 

LEVI B.. VILAS. 

[From the Waukesha Democrat.] 
"Logic of History" or "Scraps from my Scrap Book." 
—This is the the title of a work about to be published by 
S. D. Carpenter, Esq., editor of the WisconsiH Patriot— 
This work will bo an invaluable book of reference, of some 
360 pages, neatly printed and bound, containing five hun- 
dred political texts. In this work thu author goes back to 
slavery in ancient timep, and lays bare the effects of slavery 
agitation and abolitionism to the present time; Iho desire 
of leading abolitionists to excite a war of the sections, and 
their encouragement of secession by acts and words, are 
all placed before the reader, properly indexed for conven- 
ience of speakers and others. 
A copy of this work should be in the hands of every man. 

[From the Milwaukee News.] 
"The Logic of History."— Mr. Carpenter, of the 
Madison Patriot, has compiled in an attractive shape a 
series of political facts, bearing upon the principal public 
questions of the day. Ho proposes to publish them in a 
book of 350 pages, conveniently arranged in chapters and 
designed for reference in the approaching presidential 
campaign. It will be conveniently indexed for the use of 
editors, speakers and others, and be sold at the low price 
of $1 50 per copy. 

A publication of this character cannot fail to exert a 
salutary influence and prove a valuable record for refer- 
ence. 

[From the Chicago Times.] 
S. D. Carpenter, the editor of the Madison (Wisconsin) 
Patriot, is preparing for publication in book form a work 
called " Logic of History, or Scraps from my Scrap Book." 
The work includes political aflairs from the beginning "ef 
the slavery agitation to the present time, and consists 
mainly of the utterances of prominent men and newspa- 
pers in the abolitio-republican party, showing ;that it in- 
augurated and nurtured the treason which finally ruptur- 
ed the Union. The work will be a vade mecum for demo- 
cratic editors, speakers, and all classes of conservative 
people. 

[From the Ozaukee Advertiser.] 
The Logic of History.— Being Concentrated Extracts 
from my Scrap Book, containing Five Hundred Politieal. 
Texts. By S. D. Carpenter, Editor of the Wiocrm- 
sin Patriot. * « * * ,j ^"^ 

The foregoing sufficiently indicates the character of the 
work and make it evident that it is just the best thine 
published for the purpose of carrying the campaign risht 
into the camp of the enemy. It ought to be in the hands 
of every man who can talk, and if you are attacked by the 
abolition demagogues with their usual weapons "seces- 

f °"f.C"'''r''°f'"r?.PP'"''''''''''" just give thei a shot 
from "The Logic of History," and our word for it they 
wi 1 sJcedadcUe, 01 if they don't there won't be enough 
left of them politically to make a grease spot . The work 
will bo properly indexed for the convenience of editors 
speakers and others. ' 

[From the Shullsburg Local.] 
Something which Every Democrat should Have — S 
D. Carpenter, of the Madison Patriot, has in process of 
publication a most valuable work, " Logic of Historv or 
Scraps from my Scrap Book," which should be in the 
hands of every democrat. At this time it is of immense 
value, as it contains a complete expose of the efforts oftha 
abolitionists to destroy the Union, going back over a ne 
nod of more than forty years. We cannot recommend it 
too highly. It IS particularly valuable at this time when 
we murt defend the position we occupy by facts not idls 
declamation. ' 



[From the Manitowoc Pilot.] 
"The Logic or HisTOKT."--Mr, Carpenter, of the 
Madison Patriot, has been publishing in his paper for sev- 
eral months past, extracts from republican papers, and 
speeches from republican orators far years, clearly show- 
ing that they are responsible (or the commencement of the 
existing rebellion, and its continuance to the present time. 
He is now preparing to print them in book form under the 
above title, and the work will be published some time 
this month. A copy of it should be in the hands of every 
nan vcho loves the Union. 

[From the JeSferson Banner.] 
This book is intended for the use of editors and public 
speakers, and it should be in the hands of every Demo- 
crat in the country. 'Whoever has a copy of this work in 
his possession, need not fear to be called " traitor," "cop- 
perhead," and the like, for all he has to do will be to pull 
the volume out of his pocket, and cram a few Abolition 
sentences down the throats of those who assail him, and 
they will soon learn to let him alone. 

[From the Fond dn Lac Press.] 

" CONCENTf ATED EXTKACTS OP ABOLITIONISM" iS tho 

title of a new^book soon to be issued from the press of the 
Madison Patriot. Wo have had the benefit of its con- 
tents published in the Patriot, and do not hesitate to say 
that it will be of great value as a book of reference. 

[From the Mineral Point Intelligencer.] 
The work will be valuable, and should be in the hands 
of every man who desires to keep himself posted in politi- 
cal affairs. The cost is trifling compared with its value, 
and who desire it should send for it at once. Single cop- 
ies ?1 50. 



[From the Monroe County Democrat.] 
The title of the work is "Scraps from my Scrap Book," 
and from a look at the table of contents, it appears to ns a 
work of extraordinary merit for purposes of referencs, and 
one which should be in the hands ofevery editor, politician 
and public speaker in the country. It gives a succinct 
documentary history of political abolition, secession, nulli- 
fication, etc. It will contain some 350 pages closely print- 
ed, with a complete index, so that any extract may be 
readily referred to. 

[From the JJeaver Dam Argus.] 
Logic op IIistokt.— S.,D. Carpenter, of the Madison 
Patriot, is compiling a work for the use of politicians, un- 
der the above title, which will contain some 350 pages, 
composed of the sayings of Reading politicians and news- 
papers, and is particularly intended for the use of speak- 
ers and editors in the campaign next summer. For that 
purpose it will be just the thing, being divided into chap- 
ters and properly indexed. Some fifteen chapters have 
already been published in the Patriot, and from an exam- 
ination of them, we would advise every democrat to pro- 
cure this volume. Then if he is attacked by an abolition- 
ist with the usual cry of "secessionist,"' "traitor," "rebel 
sympathizer," &c., he can straightway give a "solid 
shot" from "The Logic of History," which will cause any 
abolitionist to "retreat in disorder." It is the first work 
of the kind ever published in this state, and should be 
largely circulated by the^democrats of Wisconsin. 

Terms — Single copies Si. 50; five copies to one address, 
each 11. -10; Ten 51.30^^Postage and other charges extra. 

[P. S. — It will be seen/ftiat different parties refer to our 
work under different titles, which will be readily explain- 
ed by the plurality of titles to the work itself, but which 
did not accompany its newspaper publication.] 



LOGIC OF HISTORY. 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS : 



BEING 



CONCENTEATRD EXTRACTS OF ABOLITIONISM ; 



ALSO, RESULTS OF 



SLAVERY AGITATION AND EMANCIPATION 



TOGETHER WITH SUNDRY CHAPTERS ON 



DESPOTISM, USURPATIONS AND FRAUDS. 



By S. D. carpenter, 

editor of the "wisconsin patriot. 



SECOND EDITION. 



MADISON, WIS., 1864 : 

S. D. CARPENTER, PUBLISHER 



a, 



'i.A 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 
one thousand eight hundred and sisiy-four, 

By S. D. carpenter, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the 
United States, for the State of Wisconsin. 



A WORD FOR MYSELF. 



A Preface to a book is often synonymous 
with excuses, and I will render mine as briefly 
•as possible. I have compiled this work, not 
with a view to win literary fame, though per- 
haps few, who have acquired the knowledge by 
experience, will deny me at least a modest 
claim to considerable research and laborious 
application; for, in truth I could have pro- 
duced a volume of more than double the pro- 
portions of this, with less labor and pains- 
taking, had I reduced it to a commentary on 
the subjects which it embraces. But, for the 
purposes intended, it was necessary to present 
the language employed by those who are here- 
in represented. This I have done as tersely as 
possible, without perverting the sentiments' 
uttered. The task has been an herculean one. 
The difiBculty has not been toAai to insert, but 
luhat to leave out, lest I should compile a vol- 
ume of too ponderous proportions, for it would 
have been much easier to have compited 2,000 
pages, without diminishing the interest. My 
whole aim has been to present to the conserva- 
tives of the country a useful and convenient 
digest of the sayings and doings of the North- 
ern Disunionists for the last sixty-five years, 
together with a synopsis of the slavery agita- 
tion and results of emancipation, from the hal- 
cyon days of Rome down to the present time — 
embracing a statistical, didactic and editorial 
compendium of that restless spirit of meddling 
agitation that has ruined the fairest govern- 
ments on earth. I have presented the evidence 
of Northern disunion and treason, in a conve- 
nient and tangible form, that the same may be 
demonstrated to the people who now suffer in 
consequence of these causes: — 

1st. By Editors through the press. 
2d. By public speakers from the rostrum. 
3d. By citizens, among the masses — in the school house 
and other gatherings, and in private discussions. 

The condnct of this war, from the highest 
official to the lowest parasite of power, has been 



such as to be as personally offensive as possible to 
all conservatives, by the use approbious epi- 
thets, such as "Traitor" — "Copperhead," &c. 
With this work in his possession, no Democrat 
need fear these epithets, for if he will compel 
his assailant to endure the infliction to read or 
listen to a few choice paragraphs herein, the 
insult will hardly be repeated; for, the follow- 
ing pages constitute a bomb-proof battery — an 
"iron clad" torpedo— that will be dangerous to 
trifle with. 

For fifteen years I have been selecting and 
preserving in scrap book form, the within evi- 
dences of republican guilt, until I had creat- 
ed quite a "library" of scrap books. I was 
aware years ago that these scraps would one 
day become valuable. I was offered, during 
the political canvass of 1863, a large sum for 
my first volume of Scraps, and it occurred to 
me that if one of my many volumes was prized 
so highly, there were few that would not es- 
teem it a privilege to pay ^1.50 for the cream 
of them all. 

All the libraries in the " Union as it was," 
might be searched in vain for the contents of 
this book. The same might be found mostly 
in the newspaper files of the last seventy years, 
but it would require a practiced antiquarian 
years of research to hunt up and codify these 
extracts from original sources, at an expense 
wholly inadequate to any probable remunera- 
tion. Possessing these extraordinary facili- 
ties, I have compiled this work both from the 
dictates of duty and hope of reward. I do not 
warrant it free from errors; for, in addition to 
my other duties of publishing a Daily and 
Weekly Newspaper, &c., I have without assis- 
tance, copied, codified and arranged the 
work each evening, as needed for the printers 
the next day, nor have I been able to re-exam- 
ine a single sheet of " copy," previous to its 



A WORD OR MYSELF. 



use at the case. Still, I am quite sure I have 
done no injustice to the authors of the extracts, 
except, perhaps, in some unimportant typo- 
graphical errors, that readily suggest them- 

selyes. 

While I have endeavored to link together the 

various extracts in argumentative arrangement, 
I have, with but few exceptional cases, em- 
ployed no more of my «wn language and sen- 
timents than were necessary to a proper ap- 
plication and introduction of the sentiment or 

fact quoted. 
Another reason for presenting this work, is, 

that during the canvass of 1863, I printed the 
first edition of 10,000 copies in pamphlet form, 
which were soon disposed of in all parts of the 
North, with no effort on my part, save a notice 
that a work of that character was for sale, and 
even after the last copy was sent as per order, 
I continued to receive orders from Wisconsin, 
Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Indi- 
ana, New York and other States, until calls for 
more than 6,000 accumulated on my table, be- 
yond my power to fill. I corLmenced this edi- 
tion in November last, to meet this demand, 
and already, before the first copy is bound, I 
have orders for more than two-thirds of my en- 
tire edition. I am making arrangements for 
issuing a 3d edition to supply the general de- 
mand, which I am in hopes to issue some time 
in June or July next. 

To the conservatives of the country this 
work is especially dedicated, as the aggrega- 
tion of guilt and treason of seventy years 
accumulation — to be by them exhibited as a 
living panorama of "disloyal practices" by the 
opponents of Democracy — lest the treason of 
these marplots may be overlooked, amid the 
din of their phai'isaical protestations of "we- 
are-holier-than-thou" loyalty. These marti- 
nets of power must not be permitted to deceive 
the people with their "stop thief cry of "we 
are loyal" — "yow are disloyal" — when the 
evidences of their own guilt are so overwhelm- 
ing. A sure antidote to their poison is to be 



found in this volume, which will have the good 
effect to rid the truly loyal possessor of th© 
insults of that reptile tribe of arrogant, self- 
righteous bores, who breed in the sunshine of 
power — fatten on the sweat of honest toil, and 
parrot-like chatter virtues they never possessed. 

To those who have known me for years, it 
is unnecessary to offer assurances that I am, 
as I have been from the start, in favor of the 
most "vigorous" prosecution of the war to 
crush the rebellion. I believe this can be 
done under the Constitution, and in the mean 
time preserve personal and civil liberty. I 
am, as I ever have been, opposed to secession, 
disunion, and treason — especially Abolition- 
ism, believing that the latter combines the 
trinity of the former. I have no apology to 
offer for the rebellion, and am in favor of pun- 
ishing all traitors — am opposed to any peace 
purchased at the expense of the honor and in- 
alienable rights of loyal people, and am in 
favor of any peace — the sooner it comes the 
better — that shall secure the Union of GUr 
fathers, and be honorable in its terms, and 
believe that any sensible, conservative man 
would be an improvement on Mr. Lincoln for 
President. 

The "Shakesperean Irrepressible Conflict," 
which follows the general order of this work, 
I offer gratis — not as a specimen of literary 
genius, but in accordance with a promise made 
at the repeated requests of many of my friends. 
I attach no particular importance to it, for it 
was all prepared during the three last eve- 
nings of 1862, as a "message" for the car- 
riers of my paper. It was only intended as a 
humorous salmagundi, to represent the "rise, 
progress and decline of the one idea." I may, 
without arrogance, however, claim for it this 
merit — a truthful, even though crude, reflex of 
transpiring facts. 

With the foregoing "explanations," I offer 
the work to all those who would study ihQ great 
cause of all the evils that now afflict this sorely 
oppressed people. S. D. CARPENTER. 

MililsoN, wis., February, 1864. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

EFFECTS OF AXCIENT SLAVERY AGITATION, Etc. 

Application of the "Logic of History" — Effect of Early 
Slavery Agitation — Slavery in Ancient Times — Slavery 
Agitation in Rome — Its Terrible Effects : Agitation the 
Cause of the Downfall of the Roman Empire — Greece 
and lier Dependencies Destroyed by Slavery Agitation — 
The Agitation in France — Bloody Effects of, in St. Do- 
mingo — Brissot, and other French Abolitionists, stir up 
the "Irrepressible Conflict" — A Servile Insurrection 
Ensues — Napoleon Issues a "Proclamation of Freedom " 
— Terrible Disasters follow the same — A French Army 
Destroyed — Servile Insurrection in St. Domingo — Gib- 
bon, the Uistorian, on the Character of the Negro : their 
Fall from Ancient Superiority — McKe.nzie, the Histori- 
an, on the "Cause" in the West Indies — Statistics of 
St. Domingo — The Sublime Teachings of History. 



CHAPTER 11. 

EFFECTS AND INCIDENTS OF AGITATION IN THE 
WEST INDIES. 

Agitation of the Slavery Question in England. ..Abolition 
of the Slave Trade. ..English|rhilanthiopists Define their 
Position against immediate Emancipation. ..Abolition ef 
Slavery in the British West Indies : Effects of such 
Emancipation. ..Testimony of Anti-Slavery men. ..De- 
cline of Commerce. ..Destruction of Agriculture. ..The 
Negroes Tending to Heathenism. ..Valuable Statistics 
respecting Ilayti... Indolence and Destitution of the 
Uegroes... Present Condition of Hayti... Abolition Testi- 
mony. ..The Results of Emancipation in Jamaica. ..Census 
and Statistics. ..Great Falling Off in Products. ..Estates 
Going to Decay. ..The Negro Receding into a Savage 
State... .Tho Public Debt Increasing. ...The "London 
Times" Owns Up. ..Dr. Channixg's Prophecy not Ful- 
filled. ..Trollop and the "London Times "^.. Negroes 
will not render Voluntary Labor. ..Testimony of numer- 
ous Abolitionists, showing tho Effects of Emancipation 
in the West Indies. ..Effect in .Mexico. ..Mr. Lincoln's 
Opinion. ..Statistics Applicable to the Question in the 
West Indies and the United States. ..General Conclu- 
sions, etc. 



CHAPTER III. 
HISTORY OF CAUSES OF WAR. 

Slavery not the Cause of the War. ..Illustrations showing 
the Absurdity of the Claim that it is. ..Henry Ward 
Beecher declares the Constitution to be the Cause.. .Sen- 
ator Douglas' Testimony... Alex. Stevens' Views. ..The 
Rebel Iverson on the "Cause". ..Gov. Rhett on ditto 
...The Rebel Benjamin, with Republican aid, creates a 
"Cause". ..The Constitution the "Cause"... Early Times 
...The Three Parties in 17S6...Alex. Hamilton's "Strong 
Government". ..Early Opposition to the Constitution... 
Vote close in some of the State Conventions. ..The Four 
Rebellions. ..Shays' Rebellion...South Carolina Rebellion 
in 1832— The great Abolition Rebellion. ..The great South- 
ern Rebellion of 1861. ..What the Cause of tho War... 
Abolition Pettions for Dissolution. ..A Public Debt a 
Public Bl«ssing...The object to Destroy the Government 
..Know-Nothingism as an Element to Wreck tho Gov- 
ernmert by placing Power in the hands of its Destroy- 



ers. ..Numerous Extracts in Proof.. .Treason of the Clergy 
in 181* ..Treason of the Federals in 1814...Sapport of the 
Government '-Reprobated" by Federal Reprobates, &c. 



CHAPTER IV. 

DISUNION OF EARLY GROWTH. 

Early Clamors for a Northern Confederacy.. .the Pelham 
Publication. ..Crusade Against Slavery in 1796. ..Its 
Baseness and Untruthfulness exhibited by Caret, in 
1814. ..The Federal Argument to show that Dissolution 
was close at hand. ..Early Caricatures of the North to 
stimulate Sectional Hatred. ..Falsity of the Agitators' 
statements. ..Comparison of Northern and Southern 
support of Government. ..The odious comparisons con- 
tinued. ..Republican papers and the President's Message 
...Section arrayed against Section. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE GREAT NEW ENGLAND CONSPIRACY. 

New England Money Kings endeavor to Bankrupt th& 
Government. ..Testimony of a Cotemporary...The Clergy 
in the Conspiracy. ..Consequence of the Conspiracy. ..De- 
preciation of Bank and Government Stocks. ..Mr. Carey's 
Statement. ..The Secret Federal Leagues. ..Monied men 
banded against the Government. ..Reign of Terror. ..Cit- 
izens dare not subscribe for Government Loan openly... 
Threats and Intimidations by the Federals. ..Treason of 
the Federals in buying and selling English Bills. ..Tho 
Sedition Law. ..Its object to crush out Free Discussion... 
Difference between Madison and Lincoln. ..Leading Fed- 
erals Gazetted. ..Object of the Sedition Law. ..We, the 
Government, in 1798. ..Damn the Government in 1814... 
The Pious Rev. Federals curse the Government. ..Views 
of Jeefekson and Webster, &c. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PROOFS OF FEDERAL TREASON.— Continued. 

Tone of the Federals when in Power... Similar to the Tone- 
of Those now in Power. ..Congregational Ministers' Ad- 
dress to President Adams. ..Extract from Sermon of Rev. 
Jewdau .MoRsi:... Extracts from Sermon by Rev. F. S. 
F, Gardner, 1812.. .Extracts from Discourses of Rev. 
Dr. Osgood, lS10...The Clamors of New England for Sep- 
aration and Di.?eolution..." Extracts of Treason". ..From 
Boston Centinel, Dec. 10, 1814. ..From same Dec. 14, 
1814. ..Sundry other extracts from same. ..Ipswich Me- 
morial. ..Deerfield, (Maes.) Petition. ..From the Crisis, 
No. 3. ..From the Federal Republican, 1814. ..Extract 
from Addrege to the Hartford Convention, &c...From 
Boston Daily Advertiser, 1814. ..From Federal Republi- 
can, 1814. ..Extracts from proceedings of a Treasonable 
Meeting in Reading, Mass. ..Also from Memorial of citi- 
zens of Newburjport to the Legislature — From Federal 
Republican, Nov. 7, 1814. ..From Boston Gazette. ..From 
Sermon of Rev. David Osgood... Also from his Address 
before the Legislarure... Extracts from a treasonable let- 
ter from Federals to James Madison. ..From Boston Re- 
pertory... From New York Commercial Advertiser. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

OPPOSITION TO THE MEXICAN WAR — LIKE 
FATHER, LIKE SON — LIKE FEDERAL, LIKE 
WHIG. 

Treasonable opposition to the Mexican War. ..Mr. Linoolw 
charges the "GoTernment" with being in the "wrocg"" 
...Caleb B. Smith glories in voting to condemn the war 
...uiDDiNGS would "not vote a manor a dollar". ..The 
Press of 184S on tho War.. .From the Warren Chronicle 
...Xenia Torch Light. ..Lebanon Star. ..Cincinnati Gazette 
...Kennebeck Journal. ..New Hampshire Statesman... 
Haveihill Gazette. ..Boston Sentinel. ..Boston Atlas... 
Boston Chronotype...New York Tribune. ..North Ameri- 
can. ..Baltimore Patriot. ..Louisville Journal. ..Nashville 
Gazette. ..Mt. Carmel Register, Ac, ...Also Corwin's 
" bloody hands" diatribe, &c. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FURTHER SCHEMES IN THE PROGRESS OF DISSO- 
LUTION EXPOSED. 

The efforts to create a public debt to hasten the "Strong 
Government" ... Mr. King's $2,000,000 gift, as a 
"means". ..Randolph opposed. ..CALaouN, as a means 
to an end, votes against hisparty...Purposeof tho"Frag- 
ments of the Whig party". ..Continued efforts to dissolve 
the Union. ..The Slavery issue used as a lever. ..The 
warnings of Jefferson. ..The Slavery Agitation "the 
death knell of the Union". ..Warnings of Washington 
...The voice of Jackson. ..of Haerison, &c. 



CHAPTER IX. 

EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE— WHO RESPONSIBLE, 

The Statement of Douglas. ..His last Letter. ..Senator 
Pugh's Statement. ..Endorsed by Douglas. ..Chicago Tri- 
bune wouldn't Yield an Inch. ..The Peace Congress... 
Efforts of Republicans to Hush it Up. ..Senator Chand- 
er's "Blood-letting" Epistle, &c. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE MOTIVE FOR PRECIPITATING A CONFLICT. 

Who Responsible for bringing on a CI ish of Arms. ..The 
Administration resort to a " Trick" to Force the Rebels 
to Commence the Attack. ..Letterfrom tho Hon. Harlow 
S. Orton...His charges of a " Trick" proved by Extracts 
from. ..The New York Times. ..Charleston Mercury. ..New 
York Tribune, &c,...The United States Armada take no 
part to Believe Major AndersoQ...NewY'ork Post details 
the Trick. ..Radicals Prophesying an Easy and Early 
Victory. ..Seward's Promise to deliver up Sumter. 



CHAPTER XI. 

PROGRESS AND EVIDENCE OF THE NORTHERN 
CONSPIRACY. 

The Radicals conspire to overthrow the Government long 
before the Rebellion of 1861. ..Douglas' testimony on 
this point. ..John Brown Raid originated in Kansas.. 
Col. Jamison's testimony. ..Col. F. P. Blair on the cause 
of the war. ..Abolitionists and Secessionists united. ..Mr. 
Seward's testimony... Parson Brownlow on the designs 
of the Abolitionists. ..Thurlow Weed on the "Chief Ar- 
chitects" of the Rebellion. ..Aboliiionists of New York 
Invite Southern Secessionists to join them. ..Massachu- 
setts for Dissolution in 1851. ..Also in 1856. ..Ben. Wade 
Declares there was no Union. ..Garrison's "Covenant with 
Hell''. ..Republicans of Green County, Wis., Pledged to 
'•Revolutionize tho Govenmient"... Anson Burlingame 



for a New Deal all Round. ..David Wilmot on Dissolution 
...Wendell Phillips again. ..Lowell Republicans for Dis- 
solution. ..Massachusetts Petitions for Dissolution... 
James Watson Webb for using "Fire and Sword". ..Bos- 
ton Free Soilers, 1854. ..Charles Sumner bound to Diso- 
bey law. ..The True American pronounees a Negro 
"Worth all the Unions on God's Earth" — Another Mas- 
sachusetts Petition for Dissolution. ..Dissolution Resolu- 
tion by Anti-Slavery Society. ..Another from same 
source. ..Disunion again in Massachusetts. ..From Red- 
mund's Speech. ..Wendell Phillips labors nineteen years 
to Break up the Union. ..Parker Pillsbury labored twen- 
ty years to destroy the Union. ..Stephen Foster dissua- 
ding young men from enlisting in this Unholy War, Ac. 



CHAPTER XII. 

PROGRESS OP THE NORTHERN CONSPIRACY— 

(Continued). 

Charles Sumner Advises Nullification and Disobedience to 
the Laws. ..Claims the Republican Party as Seetionil, 
and suited to his Purpose. ..Greeley's Insult to the 
Flag: The "Flaunting Lie "...Is this an Abolition 
War ?... Testimony of Gov. Stone, of Iowa. ..Statement 
of M. B. Lowry... Phillips on Secession..." Chicago Tri- 
bune and the Tax Bill. ..Extracts from a Massachusetts 
Pamphlet. ..Abuse of the Framers of the Constitution... 
Similarity between Northern and Southern Disunionists. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

DISUNION OF NORTHERN GROWTH. 

Disunion began in the North. ..Admission by Wendell 
Phillips. .."The War brought on by tho North as a Means 
to an End. ..The Kansas Imbroglio. ..Stimulated by the 
Radicals to Aid Secession and Disunion — Helper's "Im- 
pending Crisis" as a Means to hasten Dissolution. ..Mr. 
Seward Endorses its "Logical Analogies" — Treasona- 
ble Kansas War Meeting in Buffalo — Gerrit Smith and 
Gov. Reeder Stimulate the "Cause "...Beecheron Shoot- 
ing at Men. ..Charles Sumner admits the Northern Con- 
spiracy. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE JOHN BROWN RAID ENDORSED BY THE RE- 
PUBLICANS. 

Seward, Hale and Wilson Toasted by the Louisville " Jour- 
nal" for not exposing the John Brown Raid. ..John 
Brown's operations a part of the Dissolution Scheme... 
Numerous Extracts to prove that Republicans endorsed 
tho John Brown Raid. ..Republican Press, Clergy and 
Orators endorse it... From "La Crosse Republican"... 
Rev. De Los Love. ..Rev. B. D. Wheelock..." Milwaukee 
Sentinel "..."Elkhorn Independent"..." Janesvihe Ga- 
zette "...Telegraphic Despatches, 1859..." Wiusted Her- 
ald". ..Speech of J. W. Phillips. ..Laconic Letter and 
Reply, between Elder Spooner and an Editor. ..Massa- 
chusetts Resolution. ..Meeting in Rockford, 111.. ..100 
Guns Fired in Albany, N. Y. ...Theodore Parker's For- 
mula. ..Indignation Meeting in Milwaukee : their Reso- 
lutions, etc. ...Rev. Geo. W. Bassett, of 111. ...Telegram 
from New York. ..Horace Greeley on John Brown — 
"Milwaukee Free Democrat "...Speech of Rev. Mr. 
Staples, Milwaukee.. .Emerson at Tremont Temple. ..Rev. 
M. P, Kinney... "Menasha Conservator "..." Milwaukee 
Atlas "..."New York Tribune"..." Wood County (Wis.) 
Reporter "...A Prophetic Article from the "New York 
Herald "...Brown's Character in Kansas, by the " Her- 
ald of Freedom" — General Conclusions, &c. 



CHAPTER XV. 

WISCONSIN NULLIFICATION AND SECESSION. 

The Four Shocks of Secession : 1st, New England ; 2d, 
South Carolina ; 3d, Wisconsin ; 4th, The Confederate 



CONTENTS. 



states. ..Wisconsin Bids '' Positive Defiance " to the 
General Government. ..Constitutional Provisions Ilela- 
tive to Jndicial Dicision3...A Premeditated Conspiracy 
to take Wisconsin Out of the Union. ..Complete Chrono- 
logical History of the Booth Case, and Judicial Action 
theraon...The Federal Supreme Court declare that Wis- 
consin was the First to Set Up the Supremacy of the 
State over the Federal Court. ..Republicans Break Open 
Arsenal, and Seize Arms to Tefy the Power of the 
Government. ..Judge Paine's "Eloquent Extract "...Op- 
position to Law Placed Judge P. on the Bench. ..The 
Rescue Leaguers. ..Republican Meeting to Denounce 
Law. ..Judge Crawford Opposed solely because he felt 
Bound by the Decision cf the Federal Court. ..The Con- 
stitution Quoted. ..Lloyd Garrison declares Fugitive Law 
Constitutional, but Defies It..." Milwaukee Sentinel" 
on Habeas Corpus and Jury Trial for Negroes. ..Opposi- 
tion to the General Government a Political Test. ..The 
" Wisconsin State Journal " on said Test. ..Various Re- 
publiciin Papers on the Test. ..Judge Smith's Opinion... 
No Precedent to Sustain It. ..What Senator Howe said... 
Judge Smith Scouts the Consequences of His Own Acts 
...The Seven Points as Proof.. .The " State Journal " 
declares "Dissolution no Misfortune "...Republicans 
Resolve to "Revolutionize the Government "...Repub- 
lican Papers for Dissolution. ..To Sustain the Decision of 
the Federal Court declared a Crime. ..Republicans claim 
that Judge Paine was elected expressly to Defy the Fed- 
eral Court. ..Disunionists in Mass Convention. ..General 
Govenimeut again Defied. ..Republicans endorse South- 
ern Nullification. ..Wisconsin Legislature "Positively 
Defies " the Federal Government. ..Substitute to Sustain 
the Government Voted Down...Doolittle's Views. ..North- 
ern Nullification a Twin of Southern Nullification... 
Wisconsin endorses South Carolina and South Carolina 
endorses Wisconsin. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
REPUBLICANS TRUE TO OLD FEDERAL INSTINCTS. 

Classification of parties, principles and arguments, from 
1798 to lS03...Thurlow Weed on Greeley. ..New York 
Tribune favors Secession. ..Greeley advocating Peace 
with Rebels. ..Mr. Lincoln Advocates the right of Se- 
cession. ..The Republican Congress vote down a Resolu- 
tion against a Dictatorship. ..The Ayes and Noes on that 
Subject. ..The Constitution again the "Cause of all our 
Troubles". ..Complete overthrow of the Public Liberties 
...From the New York World... Republicans Raise a 
" Higher Standard than the Stars and Stripes". ..Prefer 
"Their principles to I'ifty Unions". ..Who Discourage 
Enlistments. ..Reference to Aboltition Votes in Congress. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

ABOLITiOM DISLOYALTY AND TREASON. 

Extracts from Speeches and Sayings : by John A. Bing- 
ham. ..A. G. Kiddle. ..Owen Lovpjoy...Wm. Davis... F. A. 
Pike...W. P. Cutler. ..J. M. A8hlay...J. P. C. Shanks 
...John Huchings...F. A. Conway. ..C. F. Sedgwick... 
Benj. W.adc.J. H. Rico...Q. W. Julian. ..Thad. Stevens 
...J. P. Hale (Petitions for Dissolution)... David Wilmot 
...Horace Mann. ..Wendell Phillips... Lowell Republi- 
cans..." Boston Liberator "...J. Watson Webb. ..Boston 
Free Soilers... Charles Sumner..." True American "... 
' Hampshire Gazette "...Prograninie of Revolution... 
Senator Wilson. ..R. P. Spaulding...Erastus Hopkins... 
H. M. Addison. ..Abolitionists of Massachusetts. ..R.W. 
Emerson... Horace Greeley. ..H. Ward Beecher...S. P. 
Chase. .. Fred Douglas...Redpath... Rev. Chas. E. Hodges 
...Lloyd Garrison..." N. V. Tribune "...Wm. O. Duvall 
...Gen. Banks. .. Anson Burlinganie... Rev. Dr. Bellows... 
IngersoU, of 111.. ..Defeat of the Crittenden Compromise 
...Vote in the Senate. ..Policy of Woii't-YieM-an-Inch... 
Treasonable Correspondence between M. D. Conway 
and J. M. Mason. ..F. A. Conway's Treasonable Speech 
in Congress. ..Also, his Treasonable Letter to the "N. 
Y. Tribune". ..Garrison's Speech in Philadelphia. ..Ex- 
tract from "Wisconsin Puritan." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

MORE REPUBLICAN VOMITINGS OF DISUNION AND 
TREASON 

The True Object of the War [the Nogro] Avowed by the 
" N. Y. Independent "...Beocher and the "Sheepskin 
Parchment "...Nest Eggs of Treason : Laid by Wendell 
Phillips, Lloyd Garrison, Abraham Lincoln, American 
Anti-Slavery Society, F. E. Spinner, J. S. Pike; anoth- 
er by Phillips and Garrison; and one by the " Chicago 
Tribune "...IngersoU invests Lincoln with the Power of 
the Czar of Russia... J. W. Forney on silencing " Laws 
and Safeguards "...The Abolition Conspiracy in the 
New York Riots : Important Testimony. ..The Union 
Not Worth Preserving. ..Tricks of the Ohio Abolition- 
ists. ..The Revolutionary Spirit at Work..." New York 
Tribune" advocating Mobs and Riots against Law... 
Sen. Howe would " Do in the Name of God what can't 
be done in the Name of the Constitution "...Phillips, 
Peace and Dissolution. ..This War a "Barbarian Con- 
quest." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE ADMINISTRATION UNDER THE BAN OF THE 
"BALANCE OF POWER." 

Power and Influence of the .ibolitionistg over the Admin- 
istration. ..The Leading. \bolitionist.s Feted and Provided 
with Place and Power. ..Superstition and Intolerance... 
1796, ISOO, 1814 and IStU Compared. ..The Bigotry and 
Intolerance of To-Day Borrowed from the Pilgrims — A 
Chapter from the Puritans. ..Blue Lights and Blue Laws 
...The Act Suspending tlie Writ of Habeas Corpus, in 
full. ..Ayes and Noes on said Bill, Politically Classified... 
"New York Tribune" on Peace. ..Old Abe and the 
" Union as it was," &c. 



CHAPTER XX. 

DISLOYALTY OF REPUBLICANS— THE GREAT 
ROUND-HEAD CONSPIRACY. 

Threats to Force Mr. Lincoln to Issue the Proclamation... 
From "New York Independent"..." Chicago Tribune" 
Against the "Union as It Was" ; also, its Threat to 
use Bayonets in Defiance of the People. ..The Radical 
Conspiracy of 18C2... Disclosures of the Round -Head 
Plot...Suggestionsof the " Boston Courier " ; also, from 
an Albany Paper. ..The "St. Louis Anzeiger " Reveals 
the Plot. ..Tho "N. Y. Observer" Gives a Clue to It... 
Gov. Ramsey, of Minnesota, on " Machinations of Home 

Governments," &c "Legalized Treason" From 

"Boston Courier "...The Second Hartford Convention 
Toasted. ..Chas. Sumner Teaches Revolution. ..Mr. Sew- 
ard Boasts of More Despotic Power than the Queen of 
England dare Exercise. ..Thad. Stevens declares the Con- 
stitution an "Absurdity "...Republicans Cheering for 

Dissolution Republicans for " Extermiaation and 

Damnation "...The " Boston Commonwealth " Denoun- 
ces Restoration a Crime. ..The " South Not Worth a 
Copper"... "Boston Commonwealth" Curses the "Union 
as It Was "...Bingham Don't Want the Cotton States... 
The Constitution Committed to the Flames by Garrison 
Senator Henklo and Vallandigham... Destruction of the 
Constitution a Test of Loyalty. ..God and the Negro... 
Beecher Declares that the Negro is our "Forlorn Hope" 
Republican Bloodthirstiness-.-Jim Lane would send all 
the White Men to " Hell "..."Chicago Tribune" Down 
on the " Union as It Was "...Amalgamation and Negro 
Equality. ..I'red. Douglas and White Women. ..Wendell 
Phillips Thanks God for Defeat..." N. Y. Tribune" De- 
fies the National Government — Ben. Wade on Dissolu- 
tion. ..The Seceding States follow Ben.'s Advice. ..C. 
M. Clay "Spots the Union as It Wag "...Beecher Ridi- 
cules the "Sheepskin Parchment "...Daniel Webster 
on the "Grasp of Executive Power "..."Democrats 
Must Not Clamor for the Union as It Was "...Moulding 
Public Opinion. ..Mr. Lincoln in 1854. ..Mr. Seward and 
Violence. ..Mr. Seward on the " Last Stage of Conflict " 



CONTENTS. 



...Mr. Seward's Justification for Di^iunion... The Prefix 
" Naticnal " Stricken from the Republican Cognomen... 
Banks Predicts a Military Government. ..Carl Schurz on 
Revolution. ..J. P. Hale on Dissolution. ..Oen. Butler on 
Reconstruction. ..Object and Consequences of Slavery 
Agitation. ..Prophesies of Eli Thayer. ..General Conclu- 
sions, &c. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

ABOLITIONISTS SUOW THEIR PURPOSE TO DE- 
STROY THE UNION. 

The Various Efforts at Compromi3o...Compromise the Basis 
of all Governments. ..General Principles of, Applied... 
The Compromises of the Constitution : What were 
They ?... Messrs. Yates and Lansing Retire from the Con- 
vention of 1787. ..Compromise between Delaware, Mary- 
land and Other States. ..The First Draft. ..Luther Martin 
on Compromise. ..The Largo and Small Small States at 
War on Suffrage. ..Compi-omise on SlaveTrade and Nav- 
igation Acts. ..An Original Plan of Constitution. ..The 
Great Suffrage Question. ..Mr. Martin's Explanations... 
Compromise between Slavery and Navigation. ..The New 
England States Favor the Slave Trade. ..Official Proof... 
Hypocrisy of Abolition States. ..Massachusetts Stealing 
Negroes. ..The Virginia and New Jersey Plan of Govern- 
ment. ..Predictions of Geo. Mason. ..The Missouri Com- 
promise. ..General Propositions. ..Jackson and Clay on 
Compromise. ..Compromise of 1832-3. ..Crompromise of 
1850. ..Why the Radicals would not Compromise in 1S61. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE RADICALS DETERMINED TO PREVEMT A 
SETTLEMENT. 

Could the Present War have been Avoided. ..Complete 
History of the Crittenden Compromise... Vote.?, Resolves, 
Propositions, ic. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

REPUBLICANS OBSTINATE AND REFUSE TO COM- 
PROMISE. 

The Conduct of the Abolitioaists in the Wisconsin Legis- 
lature. ..Radical Reasons for not Compromising. ..The 
Chicago Platform Good Enough for the Radicals... 
Tenacity of the Wouldn't-Yield-An-Incher3...ElTort of 
Democrats to send Commissioners to the Compromise 
Congress. ..Republicans Claim to have "Struggled Man- 
fully against the United Democracy "...Carl Schurz and 
'• Our Side "...Republicans of Sauk City opposed to Com- 
promise... A Candid Admission. ..Edward Everett on 
Compromise. ..Lord Brougham on Coercion. ..Plan of 
Adjustment by the Peace Congress. ..Franklin's Substi- 
tute..." New York Post" on Effect. ..Greeley against 
Compromise. ..General Conclusions, &c. 



.CHAPTER XXIV. 

REPUBLICAN EFFORTS TO STIMULATE DISSOLU- 
TION—THEIR DISLOYALTY AND TREASON. 

The Morrill Tariff a^ a Means to Ha.sten Dissolution... 
Opinions of the "Cincinnati Commercial," " New York 
Times," and " New York World "...From the "London 
Times "...The Tables Turned on the Charge of "Disloy- 
alty "...Rules of Testimony, and the Proof of Republi- 
can Disloyalty. ..Testimony of Andrew Johnson. ..Sena- 
tor Wilson on "Setting up with the Union". ..What 
Constitutes a "Traitor" and a " Copperhead "...Mr. 
Lincoln on the Stand : His Preaching contrasted with 
his Practice. ..Congress on the " Object " of the War... 
"Indianapolis Sentinel " ditto. ..Thad. Stevens against 
the Constitution as it is. ..Mr. Chase Declares the Union 
■ Not Worth Fighting For. ..Frank Blair on Chase. ..Thur- 



low Weed on Mob Inciters. ..Being for the Union as it 
was Declared an " Offense "...The Present Programme 
Blocked Out Just After Lincoln's Nomination. ..Daw- 
son's Letter to the "Albany Journal "...Giddings in 
the Chicago Convention ; His Radical Doctrine Voted 
Down There ; How Acted On. ..Lincoln's Letter of Ac- 
ceptance. ..Lincoln and the Chicago Platform in Juxta- 
position... Sumner Opens the Radical Ball..." New York 
Post " and Other Papers fear it was Premature. ..The 
Other Class of Disunionists... Treason of the " Chicago 
Tribune "...The Crittenden Resolutions. ..The Proclama- 
tion and Emancipation : Conclusions Thereon..." New 
York Tribune " and Other Sheets" Predict Good Things 
...The " Pope's Bull Against the Comet "...The Object 
to Divide the North, Ac. ..Gov. Andrew Before and Af- 
ter the Proclamation. ..Choice Inconsistencies, Ac... 
Money and Not the Proelamation Required to Make 
tha " Roads Swarm '...Greeley Down on Old Abe... 
Seward Pronounces the Proclamation Unconstitutional 



CHAHTER XXV. 

DISLOYALTY AND "TREASON" OF THE RADICALS, 

How the Radicals "Opposed the Government" before the 
Proclamation. ..Parker Pilisbury..."New York Times" 
Before and After the Election. .."New York Post" "Op- 
poses the Government"... "New York Times" Agiiin... 
"Chicago Tribuno",,Denounces the President. ..Wiscon- 
sin Homo League on "Imbecility and Cowardice". ..Pre- 
dictions of "New York Tribune". ..Democratic Predict- 
ions. ..Gov. Stone admits this an "Abolition War"... A 
Short Tack after the Gale of 1862. .."New YorkTribune" 
...More Prophesies by False Prophets. ..Wendell Phillips 
as a Prophet..."New YorkPosf'asa Prophet... "Nation- 
al Intelligencer" a True Prophet. ..Gov. Andrew's Proph- 
esies. .."New York Tribune's" Prophesies. ..The "900,- 
000," Ac. .Remarks of "National Intelligencer" on 
Same. ..The Proclamation in a Nut Shell. ..Belief in the 
Proclamation a Test of Loy.altj'... Forney Thereon. ..Sen- 
ator Wilson's Address. .."Disloyalty" of "Jancsville, 
(Wis.) Gazette". .."Waukesha, (Wis.) Freeman". .."New 
York Tribune" on "BIunder3"...Wenden Phillips on the 
"Lickspittle Administration"... "Milwaukee Sentinel" 
Disloyal to the "Government"... "Slate Journal" Ditto 
...Phillips Again. ..Beecher on the "Government". ...Tes- 
timony of Senator Browning. .."Milwaukee Wisconsin" 
Throws a Javelin at Seward. .."Chicago Tribune" Cor- 
rects Old Abe. .."New Y'ork Independent" on the Ad- 
ministration... "New York Times" Scores the "Govern- 
ment". .."Chicago Tribune" Ditto... "Milwaukee Senti- 
nel" Ditto...." Buffalo Express" Ditto..." Pittsburgh 
Chronicle" Ditto.... "Anti-Slavery Standard" Ditto... 
"New York Post" on "Mistakes," Ac. ..The Loyal Sia- 
mese Twins. .."New York Tribune" on "Cabbage Head'' 
Halleck. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE PROCLAMATION. ..THE RADICAL WAR POLICY. 

Mr. Lincoln's Letter to the Utica-Springfield Meetings 
Editor's Remarks on the Negro Policy..." New York 
Tribune" Pledges the President, &c ...John P. Hale's 
Bill to Abolish the Constitution. ..The Proclamation in 
England. .."New York Tribune" on "Servile Insurrec- 
tions". ..Opinions of English Abolitionists. .. Mi . Wilber- 
force on the Folly of the Proclamation. ..Wendell Phil- 
lips on the Rampage. ..The Proclamation Confessed a 
I'ailure... Caleb B. Smith Pledges the Administration 
against the Proclamation... Mr. Madison on Emancipa- 
tion. ..Lord Dunmore's Proclamation. ..Bancroft, the llis- 
torian on the Same...Thurlow Weed's Prediction. ..Mr. 
Lincoln on Federal Authority. ..The Chicago Platform... 
General Remarks. ..Post Master General Blair as a Wit- 
ness. ..His Rockville Speech. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

CONFISCATION— VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITU- 
TION, Ac. 

The Confisuation Scheme. ..The Constitution Ignored... 
Testimony of Senator Cov an... Political Extremes Com 



CONTENT?. 



pared. ..Postmaster General Blair on Secessionists an'i 
Abolitionists. ..Comments of "National Intelligencur "' 
...Senator Doolittle on Colonization and Emancipation... 
The Three "Solutions": Of Calhoun, John Brown, 
(the s!»me as Radicals), and Jefferson. ..DooUttle on Con- 
fiscation. ..Also, on Same and Abolition Denunciations of 
the "Government '"...A Republican Journal on Senator 
Doolittlo. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 
INDIRECT MODE TOTIOLATE AXD NULLIFY LAWS. 

The Personal Liberty Bills of the Various States. ..Sundry 
Provisions to Nullify the Fugitive Law... A Radical Or- 
gan admits the Purpose. ..Schemes of the Plotters ex- 
posed . 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

ARBITRARY POWER— MILITARY ARRESTS, &c. 

Introductory Remarks... Loyalty and Patriotism of the 
North. ..Arbitrary Power used to Destroy the Northern 
Unanimity... Senator Fessenden on Stopping Enlist- 
ments. ..Senator WiNon on same. ..General Conclusions... 
The Catise and the Effect. ..Mr. Lincoln's claim to Un- 
limited Power. ..Order No. 38. ..Trial of Yallandigham... 
Resolves of the Democratic Meeting at Albany. ..Their 
Protest to the President. ..The President's Reply. ..The 
Rejoinder. ..Protest of the Ohio Committee. ..Pi-esident's 
Reply. ..Committee's Rejoinder. ..The Law of the Case, 
from the "National Intelligencer "...Personal and Le- 
gal Rights. ..Crittenden's Views. ..Abolitionist i'eel Un- 
easy. ..Administration Condemned by its own Organs... 
Views of the N. Y. "Post" and " Tribune "...Judge 
Duer on Usurpations of the Administration. ..From tlie 
"N. Y. World." 



CHAPTER XXX. 

ARBITRARY POWER— MILITARY ARRESTS, &c., 
(Continued.) 

John Adams s Monarchist. ..What the Early Fathers 
thought of the Vallandigham Case. ..Great Speech of 
Edward Livingston on the Alien Bill, 1798. ..Terrible 
Scathing of Assumptions of Arbitrary Power. ..Who 
was Edward Livingston ?... Republican Confessions of 
Gross Abuses of Arbitrary Power. ..Case of Messrs. 
Brinsmade and Mahoney... Damaging Admissions by 
" Milwaukee Sentinel "...General Remarks thereon. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

DESPOTISM, USURPATIONS, INALIENABLE RIGHTS 
TRAMPLED UPON, Etc. 

Despotism Seeks the Semblance of Loyalty. ..Solicitor 
Whiting perverts Judgre Taney's Decision... ProYost 
Marshal Fry Acts Thereon. ..Star Chamber... Laws by 
Proclamation in England. ..Kidnapping in New York... 
Gov. Hunt on Arbitrary Arrests. ..The Case of Gen. Stone 
...Beecher on Arbitrary Airests...A Nice Point to Silence 
a Press. ..Geo. W. Jones vs. Wm. H. Seward. ..Judge 
Gierke's Decision... A Young Lady Fined $15 for Playing 
the "Bonnie Blue Flag".. "Burnside Favors the Arrest 
of Males and Females that wear Butternut Badges... 
Opening the Prison Doors. ..Case of Gov. Tod and Others 
...Opinion of Judge Van Trump..." New York Journal 
of Commerce " on the Powers of the Provost Marshal... 
Case of Judge Constable. ..Liberated from the Bastile... 
Atrocious Sentiments by Senator Wilson. ..Cincinnati 
Prison Full. ..Other Acts of Despotism. ..General Conclu- 
Bions...Vallaudigham'8 Acts compared with Leading Re- 
publicans. ..Loyalty of Democrats. ..Disloyalty of Re- 
publicans. ..$5110 Reward for a Disloyal Democrat Not 
Taken. ..The Writ of Habeas Corpus" the Palladium of 
Our Liberties. ..Extracts of the Magna Charta— Wrung 



from King John... Lord Campbell's Boast .. " ,lish Bill 
of Rights..." Body of Liberties" Brougb' *he May- 
flower. ..The Bill In the Declaration. ..Virginia Bill of 
Rigli;s...Massachu8ettji' "Declaration of Riglits" in 
1780. ..From Bill of Rights in Our Constitutien... General 
Remarks on Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus... 
Law of Suspected Persons. ..A Leaf from French History, 
by Allison. ..Our Parallels. ..Thiers on French Confisca- 
tion. ..Danton's Prediction. ..General Remarks. ..Black- 
stone on the English Habeas Corpus. ..Our Constitution 
Applied. ..The Ordinaoce of 1787 Applicable. ..What Our 
Fathers Tnought of it...Pinckney, Rutledge, Morris and 
Millson on the Habeas Corpus. ..Judge Curtis on " Loy- 
alty 'f and Habeas Corpus... A Scathing Speech. ..Mr. 
Chase's Opinion of Loyalty. ..The Roman Law and Per- 
sonal Liberty... St, Paul on Aibitrary Violations of Law 
Judge Festns and King Agrippa Respected the Roman 
Law..." New York Independent" on Arbitrary Arrests 
...What a Conservative Republican Thinks of it. ..Presi- 
dent's Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus : His 
Proclamation... Congress on Arbitrary Arrests. ..Oflicial 
Vote. ..Supreme Court of Wisconsin on Suspending the 
Writ. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

MORE REVOLUTIONARY SYMPTOMS. 

Mobbing of Democrats and Democratic Presses. ..Schenck's 
Order Suppressing Newspapers. ..Hascall's Despotic Note 
to the "New York Express "...How the Republicans 
Love Free Speech. ..Mobbing of Douglas in Chicago... 
Republican Mob in Green County, Wis. ...Federals, Whigs 
and Republicans in Juxtaposition. ..Their Line of Con- 
sanguinity. ..Senator Doolittle vs. Political Doolittle... 
" President Lincoln vs. Political Lincoln. ..Republicans 
in Congress Suppress Inquiry into Illegal Acts. ..Their 
Preaching vs. Practice. ..The Negro Voted Out of Illinois 
and Wisconsin... Abolitionists Selling Negroes for Cotton. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

HAVE WE A MILITARY DESPOTISM ? 

General Remarks. ..Educating the Army to the New Role 
...Adjutant General Thomas Preaching Politics to the 
Soldiers. ..Punishes Soldiers for Political Opinions. ..Uow 
the Soldiers View it. ..Anti-Copperhead Letters and Re- 
solves from the Army. ..How Manufactured. ..General 
Remarks. ..General Halleck on "Crushing the Sneaking 
Traitors of the North "...Seward, Chase, Blair, &c., at 
the Cooper Institute Meeting. ..Case of Lieut. Edgerly... 
Abolitionism a Test of a Soldier's Duty. ..The Conscrip- 
tion Act intended to Ignore the Constitution..." Boston 
Commonwealth" Admits that the Administration Em- 
ploj'ed Bayonets to Carry Elections. ..Difference between 
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy. ..Atrocious Sentiments of 
Senator Wilson... A Leaf from French History.. .A Fact 
by Sallust...Gov. Seymour on the Rotten-Borough System 
His Message of Jan. 5, 1864.. .A Flexible Platform... 
Henry Clay's Opinion. ..Free Speech Abolished. ..Senator 
Howe on. ..Petty Despotism... Arrests for Wearing Badges 
...Several Instances in Point. ..The Evidences of Ap- 
proaching Despotism. ..A Link from " New York Tri- 
bune'. ..To Doubt the Infallibility of the President is . 
"Treason "...Declaration of Independence Revised, &c. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

MORE OF THE ROLE OF DESPOTISM. 

Abtlition Schemes to Control Elections. ..Army Votfng... 
Julius C«sar the Originator of.. .Dr. Lieber on... Louis 
Napoleon and Army Voting. ..Army Vote for. ..General 
Tuttle and Vallandigham. ..Mr. V. Ahead. ..N. Y. 
World thereon. ..Tricks of the Administration to Saddle 
their Electioneering Expenses on the People... Governor 
Salomon of Wisconsin in the role. ..The Army Weakened . 



CONTENTS. 



...Soldiers Bent home to Vote. ..Proofs in Connecticut... 
Proofs in New York, <tc... Stanton Hoasts of sending more 
Soldiers than Curtin's majority. ..The Contractors per- 
form their part. ..Martial Law in Kentucky to force the 
Election... IIow a "loyal" Paper View.s it. ..From Louis- 
ville Journal. ..Statements of Clerk of the Election... 
How a Congressman was elected by an "overwhelming 
majority". ..Further evidences... Tlie Administration 
carries Maryland by the Bayonet. ..Gov. Bradford's Proc- 
lamation on the Subject. ..The Great Frauds Practiced 
on New York by the Enrollment and Quota process... 
New Y'ork Overdrawn as ciimpared with other States... 
Frauds in the Pennsylviinia and Ohio Elections... 
Punishing officers for Votiii;^ the Democratic Ticket... 
Case of Capt. Sells. ..Officer.-^' Threats to control Elections 
...Bribery at Elections. ..^Tar on the "Copperheads"... 
Kepublican Organ Justifies Military Interference in 
Elections. ..The Politics of this War... Discharging disa- 
bled and dying Soldiers from Office of Sutler for Voting 
the Democratic Ticket. ..Abolition claim of "Those who 
Vote must Fight". ..Abolition Roorbacks to Effect Elect- 
ions. ..The Union League Machinery. ..Forney on Their 
Purposes. ..Dr. Lieber on Soldiers Voting. ..Gen. Milroy 
on "Home Traitors". ..John Brough's Appeal from the 
Ballot to the Bullet. ..More Threat.s...New York Inde- 
pendent Boasts of the Infamy, &c. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

SYMPATHY BETWEEN RADICALS AND REBELS— 
THE DRAFT, &C. 

The Rebels Hate the Democracy and Sympathize with the 
Radicals. ..General Remarks. ..Benjamin's Speech in 1S6U 
...Breckinridge Seceshers Toasted with Office, lic... Rich- 
mond Examiner on Vallandinham, Cox, &c... Mobile 
Register on Democrats and Abolitionists....The Draft vs. 
Volunteering....Volunteering a Success....Wilson's and 
Fessenden's Admissions....Thad Stevens on "Alarming 
Expenses'''....Too many Troops to pay, but none to Spare 
McClellan... .General Remarks, &c....The number of Men 
called for....Cameron's Eulogy on ¥olunteering....Cost of 
Consci'iption... .Opinions of tbe Kepublican Press on the 
Draft.... Albany Statesman. ...The Draft in Rhode Island 
....A candid Statement by a RtpuDlican paper....The 
Conscription in Massachusetts....A mysterious Draft in 
New York....Result of Draft in ninth District of Massa- 
chusetts and eighth District of New York....Thurlow 
Weed on "Sneaks"....Drafting in the time of the Revo- 
lution. ...Remarks Thereon. 



CHAPER XXXVI. 

LOYALTY AND PATRIOTISM OF DEMOCRATS. 

General Remarks and Facts pertaining to. ..The Democra- 
cy of New York. ..The Iowa Democracy. ..Doctrine of 
the Kentucky Democracy. ..The Ohio Democracy. ..The 
Democracy of Wisconsin. ..The Minnesota Democracy... 
Democracy of Pennsylvania. ..Illinois Democracy....Con- 
necticut Democracy. ...Democracy of Indiana....Of Colum- 
bus, Ohio....0f Madison, Wis.. ...The National Democracy 
...Sayings and Doings of Leading Democrats. ..Governor 
Seymour's Proclamation. ..Gov. Seymour's Message... 
Gov. Parker's Proclamation. ..Kemarks of Hon. H. L. 
Palmer. ..Et tu Vallandigham... Democrats Rejoice at 
our Victories. ..Testimony of our opponents. ..New York 
Times....Mr. Seward, Official. ..Judge Paine, of Wis.... 
Administration Compliment Gov. Seymour for his Pat- 
riotism, &c. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

MISCELL.\NEOUS FACTS AND FIGURES. 

Political sine qua non of Wisconsin LegisUtuie.-.Still re- 
fuse to yield an iuch....N. Y. Round Table on Lincolnfs 



Amnesty Proclamation. ..Two Millions in Men. ...Three 
Millions in Money ...Is a National Debt a National Bless- 
ing... A Negro Nobility. ..Effects of a High Tarifi'...Vick((- 
burg Discipline. ..Will the Rebellion succeed. ..1,685,000 
Democratic Voles in the Loyal States....Gross Outrageby 
Abolitionists at Boscobel, Wisconsin. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

FRAUDS, PLUNDERING, SHODDY AND TAXES. 

Poetical api)licationg... General Remarks on. ..Scions of the 
old Puritanical stock. ..New York Custom House Frauds 
...Testimony and Facts. ..Conclusions of committee... 
A' an Wyck's speech on the Development of Astounding 
Frauds. ..Colleotor Barney and his subs. ..John P. Hale 
on corruptions of the Departments. ..Cattle contracts... 
Cummings' Agency. ..Charter of the Cataline... General 
Mania for stealing. ..Horse contracts. ..Contract Brokef- 
age... Treasury Department Frauds. ..Fire Arms Frauds 
...George D. Morgan's Operations. ..Army Transporta- 
tion. ..Mr. Dawes on Frauds... A Refreshing Expose... A 
New Y^ork Paper on Van AVyck's Report. ..The "Re- 
cord of Infamy" by the Ohio State Journal... 
Members of Congress take ahand in. ..Simmons, of Rhode 
Island, takes $50,000.. .Jack Hale takes a "fee". ..The 
Horse Swindle. ..Frauds in the Navy Yard. ..The Book 
Swindle. ..The Grimes Committee. ..Frauds, Rascality, 
and Perjury. ..The A'essel Charter Frauds. ..The Com- 
mittee's Conclusions. ..The Mileage Steal. ..Stupendous 
Frauds in New York. ..Swindling at Cairo... A Defaul- 
ter Caught. ..General Wilcox on Contractors. ..Mr. 
Dawes on Larcenies. ..Millions upon Millions Wasted... 
Beauties of Republican Retrenchment.. .Fremont's Fraudg 
...Marshal Laman Mr. Lincoln's Right Bower. ..Honest 
Old Abe and Simon help their Friends. ..Mrs. Grimsley, the 
President's Sister-in-Uw, figures in Fraud Investigations 
...Letters from Old Abe'and Cameron to Major McKinstry 
...Congress Censures. ..that's all. ..The Holt and Owen In- 
vestigation. ..The Splendor of I'remont's operations... 
Frauds! Frauds! ! Frauds! ! ! on every hand. ..General Re- 
marks. ..Holy Ministers and Stolen IPictures... Swindling 
the Soldiers... Hundreds of Millions Swindled. ..AVe are all 
Mortgaged ..Our National Debt. ..The Means to pay it... 
General Remarks. ..The Currency Question. ..Stand from 
Under. ..General Remarks on Republican Thieves and 
Plunderers. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

WARNINGS AND ADVICE OF AMERICAN STATES- 
MEN, ic. 

From AVashington's Farewell Address. ..Jackson's Fare- 
well Address. ..By Daniel AVebster...By Henry Clay... 
By Patrick Henry. ..From AYebster's Great Oration... 
i'urther from Jackson's Farewell Addresses. ..Madison 
on the Liberty of the Press... Mr. Seward on Free Speech 
...Jefferson on the Plea of Necessity. ..John Adams on 
Arbitrary Power. ..Ex-President Filmore on the Negro 
Question. ..Gov. Seymour's Patriotic Letter. ..Senator 
Harris of New York, on the Despotism of Conscriptions 
...Rob'tJ. Walker on State Suicide. ..Sen. Trumbull on 
the Tyrant's Plea. ..Gen. McClellan on Constitution and 
Christian Civilization. ..Sen. Crittenden on the cause of 
our Troubles. ..President Harrison on the Rights of the 
States. ..Montesquieu and Jefferson on Preservation of 
Liberty. ..James Madison on same. ..Gen. Han-ison at Ft. 
Meigs....J. Q. Adams on the "Link of Union". ..The 
Father of the Constitution on Confiscation. ..List of Mem- 
bers and Delegates in Congress, &q. 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



SLAYERY AGITATION: 

CONSPIRACIES AGAINST THE UNION 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



CHAPTER I. 

■ EFFECTS OF A^"CIENT SLAVERY AGITATION, Etc. 

Application of the "Logic of History" — Effect of Early 
Slavery Agitation — Slavery in Ancient Times — Slavery 
Agitation in Rome — Its Terrible Effects : Agitation the 
Cause of the Downfall of the Roman Empire — Greece 
and her Dependencies Destroyed by Slavery Agitation — 
The Agitation in France — Bloody Effects of, in St. Do- 
mingo — Brissot. and other French Abolitionists, stir np 
the "Irrepressible Conflict" — A Servile Insurrection 
Ensues — Napoleon Issues a " Proclamation of Freedom " 
— Terrible Disasters follow the same — A French Army 
Destroyed — Servile Insurrection in St. Domingo — Gib- 
bon, the Historian, on theCharacter of the Negro: their 
Fall from Ancient Superiority — McKenzib, the Histori- 
an, on the "Cause" in the West Indies — Statistics of 
St. Domingo — The Sublime Teachings of History. 

APPLICATION OF THE LOGIC OF HISTORY. 

" We Cannot Escape HiSTORT."— J/essa^eo/^1. Lincoln. 

This I hold to be the chief office of history: — To rescue 
virtuous actions from the oblivion to which a want of re- 
cords would consign them, and that men should feel a dread 
of being considered infamous in the opinions of posterity, 
for their depraved expressions a.niX base actions. — Tacitus. 

It is said tliat history is like a lantern placed 
at the stern of a ship to show the course it has 
pursued, whereas it should be placed at the 
bow to indicate the track it is pursuing, and to 
shed the light of its rays on the rocks on which 
others have been wrecked. And herein all na- 
tions of every age have failed to profit by the 
light of past history. They place that light at 
the wrong end of the ship of State. It will be 
the object of this publication to place the light 
of history where it should be, as a beacon of 
warning on our onward course, through the 
dangerous Archipelago of the living present, 
and by a proper analogy to guide our tempest- 
tossed barque so as to shun the dangers of the 
unknown future. 

Happily, we are not confined to the immedi- 
ate past for analogies to illustrate our present 
condition, as a nation, but we are permitted to 
read our most probable fate by the light which 
ancient Greece, Athens and Rome, have left 
2 



burning on the ruins of their historical altars. 
The history of those nations— their rise, pro- 
gress and melancholy downfull, is full of warn- 
ing to us. The First, Second, Third, Fourth 
and Fifth, speak to the Nineteenth century 
in no dead or equivocal Innguage. Rome 
from her gory srave of national oblivion, speaks 
in thunder tones to America. The once 
proud, erudite and far famed, though row al- 
most fossilized Athens, h.nils us through the 
loud trumpet of history, and bids us beware 
the breakers on which ambition wrecked her 
greatness and glory. Heroic, historic and le- 
gendary Greece, warns us from her grave of 
woe, to beware of Macedonian and Pelopo- 
nessian strifes. The chivalrous Cato, from the 
suicide's sepulchre, will act our monitor against 
the insidious agitations of Abolition Gracch- 
usEs, Crassuses and Eunuses. The arts 
and sciences, now locked in the secret heca- 
tombs of early oriental greatness, all admonish 
us to study and profit by the teachings and log- 
ic of history. 

The writer hereof, having devoted much time 
for many years to the culling out and filing 
away such scraps of history as prophetic cal- 
culation (so to speak) induced him to believe 
would sooner or later be useful in a crisis, that 
the least observing must have known years ago 
would inevitably overtake our people, will re- 
gard himself amply compensated for the time 
which the within historical collation has re- 
quired, if the same shall in the least degree 
serve to direct popular attention to a long train 
of evils now threatening the life ot this nation, 
and which are so ineffacably chisseled in the 
milestones that mark the great highway of na- 
tions, that he who runs may read, and he who 
reads without criminal prejudice, may learn a 
lesson of more value than the gold of Eldorado. 

THE SLAVERY AGITATION— ITS CONSEQUENCES 

Mr. Lincoln tells us that we cannot escape 
history. This shows that he has at least read 



10 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



enough of the history of ancient and modern 
nations to lenrn one fact; that as no nation 
ever did escape its own history, ours ■will cling 
to us with equal tenacity. In this, and the 
subsequent chapters, it will not be so much our 
object to present original propositions as it will 
be to collate and spread out before our readers 
the logic and argument of history, and we shall 
endeavor to avoid all verbiage except so far 
as may be necessary to present the various facts, 
sayings, doings and historical reminiscenses, 
in such manner as to present the aims and pur- 
poses of the vast array of witnesses we shall 
place on their voir dire. 

It has of late been a stereotyped phrase that 
"slavery is the cause of this war," but such 
declarations are mostly confined to slavery agi- 
tators. So far as our observation and belief 
go, such is in no sense the truth of history. — 
The agitation of the slavery question is no 
doubt thy principal pretext, and without ques- 
tion has furnished the main pabulum on which 
treason has fed and waxed strong, but as we 
proceed it will be seen that the real cause has 
more to feed it than slavery, or eren its agita- 
tion; but before we proceed to that "count" 
let us take observation of the 

EFFECT OF EARLY SLAVERY AGITATION. 

It will be neither our purpose to show that 
slavery is, or ever was, right or wrong, but 
barely to present the light of historical f;iGts, 
leaving the reader to form his own conclusions. 

Slavery has existed, under various phases, 
from the remotest periods of sacred and pro- 
fane history In tlie 17th chap, of Genesis, v. 
12, 13, 23 and 27, the fact that Abraham bought 
men with his money is four times recognized. 
Verse 12 is represented to be in the language 
of God, Himself, speaking to Abraham, viz.: 

And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised 
among you, every man child in your generations; he 
that is born in the house, or bought witti money of any 
stranger, which is not of thy seed. 

In the 24th chap. 35th v., man and maid ser- 
vants are mentioned among the blessings which 
God had bestowed upon Abraham: — 

And the Lobd li:ith blessed my nmster (ABR.iU.iM) 
greatly, and he is become great, ami He has given him 
flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and man servants, 
and maid servants, and camels and asses. 

From the 14th chap, and 14th verse it ap- 
pears that Abraham had three hundred and 
eighteen "trained servants, born in his house." 
The 21st chap, of Exodus, the 25th chap, of Le- 
viticus and the 25th chap, of Deuteromony re- 
cognize slavery and the buying of slaves, &c. 
Slavery is also recognized by Paul in 1st Co- 
rinthians, and in the ^th chap, of the Ephe- 
tians, the 6th chap, of Paul's 1st Epistle to 
Timothy, in the 3d and 4th chapters of his 
Epistles to the Collossians, in chap. 24 of his 
Epistle to Titus, in the 1st Epistle of Peter, 
the Epistle of Paul to Philemon, &c. 

SLAVERY IN THE TIME OF CLAUDIUS. 

The following table exhibits the great num- 
ber of slaves held in an early period : 



Rome 20,000,000 

J-rance, 20,000,000 

Germany, 22,000,000 

Hungary, 4,000,000 

Italy, 10,000,000 

Spain and Portugal, 8,000,000 

Great Britain, .S, 000,000 

European llus.sia, 12,000,000 

Poland, 6,000,000 

Greece and Turkey <i,i'no,000 

Sweeden 4,0UO,0(X) 

Denmark and Norway, :j, 000,000 

Low Countries, 4,0110,000 

[Sve V(AUnredc Uistoire O'cnerale. 

In those days white men were held as slaves, 
and not till long after were Ethiopeans brought 
to Roman servitude. The Roman law regula- 
ting slavery was in a great measure borrowed 
from the Hebrew code, modified to suit the 
spirit of the age. It gave power to the master 
over the life and limb of his slaves, and the 
utmost .I'iu'^ir prevailed. The Romans and their 
neighbors were continually at war. ''nor did 
they agree to cartels for the exchange of pris- 
oners. All prisoners became slaves by the in- 
exorable laws of war, and were held either by 
the state under the system of Roman helotry. or 
by citizens who purchased from the state. Not 
unfrequently citizens, asunder the old Leviti- 
cal law, voluntarily surrendered themselves as 
slaves, to escape the consequences of want and 
destitution. 

SLAVERY' agitation IN ROME. 

Slavery was no doubt a monster political 
evil in the Roman Commonwealth — a thousand 
fold more so than any system known to civilized 
nations of the present age. Romans, Grecians 
and Athenians enslaved their equals, and fre- 
quently their intellectual superiors; and at one 
time, history tells us, every twelfth person in 
the realm either was, or had been a slave. — 
The evil, great as it was, could no doubt have 
been borne, until God, in his own way, should 
have wrought its extinction or amelioration, 
far better than the dreadful consequences that 
followed in the wake of its political agitation. 

In those days, philanthropy, whether prop- 
erly or improperly directed, as it has been 
ever since, tried to force its growth by hot-bed 
stimulants, and while good men, no doubt, 
were prompted to assail the institution from 
just and pure motives, yet it requires a very 
little attention to the "logic of history" to see 
that the moment the agitation became popular, 
as it did under the insipient agitations of 
Gracchus, by which he was called to the Tri- 
bunate, it attracted the legions of political 
demagogues and vampyres, who, from no better 
motive than to obtain power and plunder, con- 
trive to float upon the surface of any move that 
promises popular favor. 

Gracchus was no doubt originally governed 
by philanthropic motives. He struck at the 
evil in its national capacity, and at first urged 
measures of a humane and national character. 
He neither denounced individual slave-hold- 
ers as guilty of the "sum of all villainy," nor 
threatened to confiscate their property. Hence, 
although standing forth as the avowed enemy 
of the system, he became the favorite of the 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



11 



slaveholders, -who elected bim Chief of the 
Tribunes. I3ut the moment he had a taste of 
power, he inaugurated a political agitation — 
threatened to ''\force emancipation, speedily 
and ■without recourse" — and called around 
him some of the best talent, yet most ambitious 
men of Rome. Gracchus was to Rome what 
Charles Sumxer is to America — an eloquent 
agitator of the slavery question. Appius 
Claudius, his father-in-law, Mutius Sc^vo- 
LA, the most famous lawyer of Rome, and 
Crassus, the leader of the priesthood, and 
the wealthiest man in the Commonwealth, 
were associated with Gracchus. Those influ- 
ential abolitionists agitated the slavery ques- 
tion, until it entered into all the petty political 
questions of the day, and until their proselytes 
were counted by legions, and on the scum of 
the excitement floated a large class of dema- 
gogues and political hucksters, who scrupled 
not at any means to obtain place and power. 
These selfish plebians and patricians organized 
for oiTensive raids on the public exchequer, 
and carried their vile purposes with them to 
such ill extent, that all classes were aroused 
to the highest degree of excitement. An "Ir- 
repressible Conflict"' ensued, which not only 
destroyed Rome, and blotted her out from the 
map of the world, as a nation of power and 
vitality, but forever blasted the hopes, the hap- 
piness and the liberties of slaves, helots and 
people. 

The hot blood of party was aroused to a fear- 
ful temper, and from that moment Rome began 
to totter to her final fall. Gr.vcchus was a 
candidate for re-election, en the platform of 
confiscation and emancipation. The excite- 
ment is represented as intense. Appeals were 
made to passions and fraiatical prejudices, and 
on the day of the election, the phrenzied mul- 
titude beat Gracchus to death and threw his 
body into the Tiber. Three hundred of his 
followers perished on the same day.^ 

Many of the measures of Gracchus were no 
doubt wise and beneficent, and had he not com- 
mitted the fatal error of linking them with po- 
litical Abolitionism and Agrarianism, he would 
without question have not onl}' saved Rome, 
but secured lasting fame as a man of good im- 
pulses and great genius. 

After the death of Gracchus his followers 
canonized him as a "martyr to a glorious 
cause." EuNus, one of his disciples, under- 
took the spread of political Abolitionism into 
Italy and the Island of Sicily. He collected 
what force he could from the Plebian ranks — 
distilled the vain hope of sudden freedom into 
the ears of the common slaves and the helots, 
and as Blake says, managed to raise a motly 
army of 200,000, armed with scythes, pitch- 
forks, &c., and marched forth, proud in the be- 
lief that he was to occupy a high niche in the 
Pantheon, as the deliverer of the slaves of 
Italy and Sicily. Mr. Blake, who wrote the 
"History of Slavery," containing 832 pages, a 
work especially designed for abolition use in 
this country, informs us that a million of per- 

* See Blake's History of Slaverj'. 



■sons were butchered in this " worse than Car- 
thagenian war." Eunus failed in his abolition 
purposes, and the slaves, whom he had promis- 
ed liberty they were not prepared to enjoy, in 
the language of the same author, "committed 
one universal suicide!" 

The tragic sequel of this Sicilian insurrec- 
tion did not deter others from embarking in the 
Abolition crusade^ Tiberius, brother of the 
Tribunate Gracchus, organized the Abolition 
party anew, and carried on the contest, he and 
his successors, until all — masters, helots and 
slaves, perished in the general wreck of the 
Empire. 

That the agitation of the slavery question, 
and the blending that issue with Roman poli- 
tics for the benefit of Roman demagogues, and 
to the disparagement of Roman Statesmen, was 
the primeval cause of the downfall of that Gov- 
ernment — that once stretched its power from 
the Tiber to the Adriatic, is a fact too well au- 
thenticated by history to require other accumu- 
lative evidence than the admission of Mr. 
Blake himself, who on page 59 of his work 
says : 

The laws of Ge.\cchus cut the Patricians with a double 
edge. Their fortunes consisted in lands and slaves; it 
questioned their title to the public land, and tended to 
force emancipation [^le American parallel in Lincoln's 
ProclaraationJ, by making their slaves a burden. In ta- 
king away the soil [see the parallel of the radical idea of 
reducing the states to territories, &c.] it took away the 
power that kept their live machinery in motion, ne 
moment was a crisis in the affairs of Home — such a crisis 
as hardly occurs to a nation in the progress of many cen- 
turies [see parallel in the American crisis.] Men are in 
the habit ot proscribing Julius Caesar as the destroyer of 
the Commonwealth. The civil wars, the revolutions of 
Caesar, the miserable vicissitudes of the Koman Empe- 
rors—the avarice of the Nobles and the rabble, the crimes 
of the forum and the palace— aZZ have their germ in the ill 
success of the reform of Gracchus. 

Here, then, is the admission of the principal 
abolition historian of this country, that Rome 
was destroyed by the "ill successes" of the 
slavery agitation. Have we no fear for a like 
result from the same cause on this continent? 

President Harrison, in his inaugural ad- 
dress, in censuring the interference of the non- 
slaveholding states, said: 

It was the ambition of the leading states of Greece, to 
control the domestic conce.rns of others, that the destruction 
of thnt celebrated confederacy, and subsequently of all its 
members, is mainly to be attributed. 

SLAVERY agitation IN FRANCE. 

France, also, had her abolition societies and 
"agitators, and the result of the agitation of 
this ill omened subject is fiimiliar to the stu- 
dent of history. We offer no apology for the 
following copious extracts from Allison's 
History, which was written long before the ad- 
vent of our present troubles, and with no pos- 
sible view to aid political ideas or dogmas. — 
For the purpose of the better exhibition of the 
parallels with the chain of history! we are 
making, and which Mr. Lincoln truly says we 
cannot escape, we present the facts and inci- 
dents in semi-dramatic order, in four acts.— ^ 
The period lies between 1791 and 1802; 



12 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



A.CT I — THE ABOLITIONISTS AGITATE AND STIR 
UP DISCORD. 

The Jacobin abolitionists, in 1791, began the 
agitation of the slavery question in the Constit- 
uent Assembly. This proved to be a firebrand 
as it has been in our Congress. We quote as 
follows: [See Allisonh Hist, of Europe., vol. i. 
pp. 120-1.] 

"The second catastrophe, more extensive in its opera- 
tion, yet more terrible in its details, was the revolt of St. 
Domingo. The slaves in that flourishing colony, agitated 
by the intelligence which they received of the leveling 
principles ofthe Constituent .-v'ssenibly. had duly mani- 
fested symptoms of insulinr.liuatii.n. The Assembly, di- 
vided between the desiie of (•iilV:ai>liising so large a body 
of men, and the evident diingers of such a step, had long 
hesitated on the course they should adopt, and were in- 
clined to support the rights of the planters. Butthe pas- 
sions of the negroes were excited by the etforts of a society 
styled 'The Society of Fi lends of Blacks,' [same as our 
Abolitionists,] of which Brissot was the leading member ; 
and the muUattoes were induced, by their injudicious ad- 
vice, to organize an insurrection. They trusted that they 
would be able to control the ferocity of the slaves even 
during the heats of a revolt; they little knew the dissim- 
ulation and cruelty of the savage character. A universal 
revolt was planned and organized, without the slightest 
suspicion on the part of the planters, and the same night 
fixed on for its breaking out over the whole island. 

"At length, at midnight, on the 30th October, the in- 
surrection broke forth. In an instant twelve hundred 
coffee and two hundred sugar plantations were in flames; 
the buildings, the machinery, the firm ofSces, reduced to 
ashes; the unfortunate proprietors hunted down, murder- 
ed or thrown into the flames by the infuriated negroes. — 
The horrors of a servile war universally appeared. The 
unchained African signalized Lis ingenuity by the discov- 
ery of new and unheard-of modes of torture. An unhap- 
py planter w.as sawed asunder between two boards; the 
horrors inflicted on the women exceeded anything known 
even in the annals of Christian ferocity. The indulgent 
master young and old, rich and poor, the wrongs of an 
oppressed- race were indiscriminately wreaked. Crowds 
of slaves traversed the country with the heads of the 
white children affixed on their pikes; they served as the 
standards of these furious assemblages. [Our abolitionists 
have endeavored to incite similar outrages in the gouth.] 
In a few instances only, the humanity of the negro char- 
acter resisted the savage contagion of the time; and some 
faithful slaves, at the hazard of their own lives, fed in 
caves their masters or their children, whom they had res- 
cued from destruction. 

"The intelligence of these disasters excited an angry 
discussion in the Assembly. Brissot, the most vehement 
opponent of slavery, ascribed them all to the refusal of the 
blessings of freedom to the negroes; [precisely as our 
abolitionists ascribe every evil — the war and all — to sla- 
very;] the moderate members, to the inflammatory ad- 
dresses circulated among them by the Anti-Slavery Soci- 
ety of I'ai'is; [precisely as our abolitionists have ever done, 
and are now doing.] At length it was agreed to concede 
the political rights for which they contended to the men 
of color; and, in consequence of that resolution, St. Do- 
mingo obtained the nominal blessings of freedom. ["At 
length" came Lincoln's proclamation — a perfect historical 
parallel.] But it is not thus that the great changes of 
nature are conducted ; a child does not acquire the strength 
of manhood in an hour, or a tree the consistency of the 
hardy denizens of the forest in a season. The hasty phi- 
lanthropists who conferred upon an ignorant slave popu- 
lation the precipitate gift of freedom, did them a greater 
injury than their worst enemies. [And our "hasty phi- 
lanthropists,"' who clamor for immediate abolition, will 
do the slaves here "more harm than their worst enemies."] 
The black population remain to this day, in St. Domingo, 
a memorable example of the ruinous effect of precipitate 
emancipation. Without the steady habits of civilized so- 
ciety; ignorant of the wants which reconcile to a life of 
labor; destitute of the support which to a regular govern- 
ment might have afforded, they have brought to the du- 
ties of cultivation the habits of savage life. To the indo- 
lence of the negro character they have joined the vices of 
European corruption; profligate, idle, and disorderly, they 
have declined both in numbers and in happiness; from 



eing the greatest sugar plantation in the world, the 
inland has been reduced to the necessity of importing that 
valuable produce; and the inhabitants, naked and volup- 
tuous, are fast receding into the state of nature from 
which their ancestors were torn, two centuries ago, by the 
rapacity of Christian avarice." 

ACT II. — MORE FREEDOM TO THE NIGGERS DE- 
MANDED. 

As we have seen what came of the effort to 
free the negroes from bondage, so let us look at 
the effect of the Abolition effort to enfranchize 
the ignorant blacks AVe quote from the same 
history, vol. II, p- 241: — 

By a decree on March 8, 1790, the Constituent .Assembly 
had empowered each colony belonging to the Kepublic to 
make known its wishes on the subject of a Constitution, 
and that these wishes should be expressed by colonial as- 
semblies, freely elected and recognized by their citizens. 
This privilege excited the most ruinous divisions among 
the inhabitants of European descent, already sufficiently 
menaced by the ideas fermenting in the negro population. 
The whites claimed the exclusive right of voting for the 
election of members of this important assembly, while the 
mulattoes strenuously asserted their title to an equal share 
in the representation; and the blacks, intoxicated with 
the novel doctrines so keenly discussed by all classes of so- 
ciety, secretly formed the project of ridding themselves of 
both . This decree of the National Assembly was brought 
out to the island by Lieutenant Colonel Oge, a mulatto 
officer in the service of France, who openly proclaimed the 
opinion of the parent Legislature, that the half-caste and 
free negroes were entitled to their full share in the election 
of the representatives. The jealousy of the planters was 
immediately excited. They refused to acknowledge the 
decree of the Assembly,conslitiited themselves into a sepa- 
rate Legislature, and liaving seized Oge in the Spanish ter- 
ritory, put him to death by the torture of the wheel, un- 
der circumstances of atrocious cruelty. 

"This unpardonable proceeding, as is usually the case 
with such acts of barbarity, aggravated instead of stifling 
the prevailing discontents, and theheats of the colony soon 
became so vehement that the Constituent Assembly felt 
the necessity of taking some steps to allay the ferment. 
The moderate and violent parties in that body took differ- 
ent sides, and all Europe looked on with anxiety upon a 
debate so novel in its kind, and fraught with such momen- 
tous consequences to a large portion of the human race. 
Baruave Malouet, Alexander Lameth, and Clermont Ton- 
nerre strongly argued that men long accustomed to servi- 
tude could wkrcccive thepcrilous gift of liberty with safe- 
ty either to themselves or others, hut liy slow decrees, and 
thatthe effect of suddenly admitting that hrigld light upon 
a benighted population would he to throw them into inevit- 
able and fatal convulsions. But Mirabeau, the master- 
spirit of the Assembly, and the only one of its leaders who 
combined popular principles with a just appreciation of 
the danger of pushing them to excess, was no more, and 
the declamations of Brissot and the Girondists prevaileil 
over tlKse statesman-like ideas. By a decree on the 15th 
of May, IT'.i], the privileges of equality were conferred in- 
discriminately on all persons of color, "born of a free father 
and mother, 

" Far from appreciating the hourly increasing dangers 
of their situation, and endeavoring to form with the new 
citizens an org.'inized body to check the further progress 
of leveling principles, the planters openly endeavored to 
resist this rash decree. Civil war was preparing in this 
once peaceful and beautiful colonv; arms were collecting; 
the soldiers, caressed and seduced by both parties, were 
wavering between tlieir old feelings of regal allegiance 
and the modern influence of into.xicating j>rinciples, when 
a new and terrible enemy arose, who speedily extinguished 
in blood the discord of his oppressors. On the night of 
the 22d of August, the negro revolt, long and secretly or- 
ganized, at once broke forth, and wrapped the whole 
Xorthcrn part of the coiony in flames. Jean Francois, a 
slave of vast, penetrative, firm cliaracter, and violent 
passions, not unmingled with generosity, was the leader 
of the conspiracy; his lieutenants were Bias.son and 
ToussAl.xT. The former, of gigantic stature, Herculean 
strength and indomitable ferocity, was well fitted to as- 
sert that superiority which such qualities seldom fail to 
command in savage times; the latter, gifted with rare in- 
telligence, profound dissimulation, boundless ambition, 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



13 



and heroic fii-Diness, was fitted to become at once the 
Numa and the Romulus of the sable Kepublic in the 
Southern Hemisphere. 

"This vast conspiracy, productive in the end of calami- 
ties unparalleled even in the long catalogue of European 
atrocity, had for its objects the total extirpatinn of the 
whites, and the. fstablishmerit of an independent hlackgov- 
ei'nmeat over the whole island." 

[Beware of liberty to the blacks, an'i " ex- 
tirpation " of the whites ] 

We quote as follows from the same Act, 
though in a different scene, p. 243-3 (1801): 

"Meanwhile the legislative assembly, which had succed- 
ed the constituent, a step farther advanced in revolution- 
ary violence, were preparing ulterior measures of the 
most frantic character. Irritated at the colonial legisla- 
ture for not having followed out their intention, and in- 
stigated at the populace, whom the efforts of Brissot and 
the Society at Paris, des Amis des Sorris had roused to a 
perfect phrensy on the subject, they revoked the decree 
on the2-l:th of September preceding, which had conferred 
such ample powers on the colonial legislature, dissolved 
the assembly at Capo Town, and dispatched three new 
commissioners, Arthanx, Sautionax, and Tolverel, with 
unlimited powers to settle the affairs of the colony. In 
vain Barnaves and the remnant of the constitutional parfy 
in the assembly strove to moderate these extravagant pro- 
ceedings; the violence of the Jacobins bore down all op- 
position. 'Don't talk tons of danger,' said IJrissot; 'let 
the colonies perish rather than one princijile bo abandon- 
ed.' [Don't talk to us, say our Abolition Crissots — let the 
Union perish rather than abandon our platform.] 

The proceedings of the new commissioners speedily 
brought matters to a crisis. They arrived llrst at Port an 
Prince, and in conformity with the secret instructions of 
the government, which were to dislodge the whites from 
that stronghold, they sent otf to France the soldiers of the 
regiment of Artois. established a .Jacobin club, transported 
to France or America thirty of the leading planters, and 
issued a jvoclamation [aye, aye, a "proclamation"] in 
which they exhorted the colonists "to lay aside at last the 
prejudices of color." Having thus laid the revolutionary 
train at Port au Priuce, they emb.irkcd for Cape Town, 
where they arrived in tlie middle of .Tune. Matters had 
by this time reached such a height there as indicated the 
immediate approach of a crisis. The intelligence of the 
executive of the King, and proclamation of a Republic, 
had roused to the very highest pitch the Democratic pas- 
sions of all the inferior classes. The planters, with too 
good reason, apprehended that the convention which had 
succeeded the legislative assembly would soon outstrip 
them in violence and put the finishing stroke to theib man- 
ifold calamities, by at once proclaiming the liberty of the 
slaves, and so destroying the remnant of property which 
they still posspssed. But their destruction was nearer at 
hand than they supposed. On the 20111 of June a quarrel 
accidentally ar^ ise between a French naval captain and a 
mulatto ofRcer in the service of the collonial government; 
the commissioners ordered them both into their presence, 
■without regard to the distinction of color, and this excited 
the highest indignation in the officers of the marine, who 
landed with their crews to take vengeance for the indignity 
done to one of their members. The colonists loudly ap- 
plauded their conduct, and invoked their aid as the savior 
of St. Domingo; the exiles brought from Port au Prince 
fomented the disco.'-d as the only means of effecting their 
liberation; a civil war speedily ensued in the blockaded 
capital, and for two days blood flowed in torcnts in these 
insane contests, between the sailors of the fleet and the 
mulatto population. 

"The negro chiefs, secr-'tly informed of all these disor- 
ders, resolved to profit by the opportunity of finally de- 
stroying the whites thus" afforded to them". Three thou- 
sand insurgents penetrated through the works stripped of 
their defenders during the general tumult, and making 
straight for the prisons, delivered a large body of slaves 
who were therein chains. Instantly theliberated captives 
spread themselves over the town, set it o:i fire in every 
quarter, and massacred the unhappy whites when seeking 
to escape from the conflagration. A scene of matchless 
horror ensued: twenty tliousand negroes broke into the 
city, and, with the torch in one hand and the sword in the 
other spread slaughter and devastation around. Hardly 
had the strife of the Europeans with each other subsided, 
when they found themselves overwhelmed bv the venge- 



ance which had been accumulating for centuries in the 
African breast. Neither age nor sex were spared ; the 
young were cut down in striving to defend their houses,the 
aged in theVhurchos where they had fied to implore protec- 
tion; virgins were immolated on the altar; weeping infants 
hurled into the fires. Amid the shrieks of the sufferers 
and the shouts of the victor, the finest city in the West In- 
dies was reduced to ashes; its splendid churches, its state- 
ly palaces, were wrapped in flames; thirtj' thousand hu- 
man beings perished in the massacre, and the wretched 
fugitives who had escaped from this scene of horror on board 
the ships, were guided in their passage over the deep by 
the prodigious light which arose from their burning habita- 
tions. They almost all took refuge in the United States, 
where they were received with the most generous hospital- 
ity; but the frigate ia ^V«e foundered on the passage,and 
five hundred of the survivors from the flames perished ia 
the waves. 

" Thus fell the Queen of the Antilles: the most stately 
monument of European opulence that had yet arisen in the 
New World. Nothing deterred, however, by this unpar- 
alleled calamity, the commissioners of the Republic pur- 
sued their frantic career, and, ".-niid the smoking ruins of 
the Capital, published a decree, which proclaimed the 
freedom of all the blacks [what could more perfectly rep- 
resent this case than the President's proclamation, while 
the rebel armies were thundering at our capital?] who 
should em oil themselves under the standards of the Re- 
public; a measure which was equivalent to the instant ab- 
olition of shivery over the whole island. Farther resistance 
was now hopeless; the Republican authorisies became the 
most ardent persecutors of the planters; pursued alike by 
Jacobin phrensy and African vengeance, they fled in de- 
spair. Polveral proclaimed the liberty of the blacks in the 
West, and Montbrun gave free vent to his hatred of the 
colonists, by compelling them to leave Port au Prince, 
which had not yet fallen jnto the hands of the negroes. 
Everywhere the triumph of the slaves was complete, and 
the authority of the planters forever destroyed. 

" But, although the liberation of the negroes was afl'ect- 
ed, the imlependence of the island was not established." 

ACT III. — NAPOLEON ISSUES AN ABOLITION 
PROCLAMATION. 

In 1801, Napoleon, urged on by the Abo- 
litionists, issued his piroclamation abolishing 
slavery in the Island of St. Domingo, in which 
he called on the "Vrave blacks to remember 
that France alone had recognized their free- 
dom," and on November 22, 1801, having ap- 
pointed Le CLERC,^his brother-in-law, to the 
command of the army about to visit St. Domin- 
go in order to reduce the recusant Toussaint 
to obedience, he issued the following "procla- 
mation" [See p. 245]: 

At St. Domingo, systematic acts have disturbed the po- 
litical horizon. Under equivocal appeai-ancr.^, the gor- 
eminent has wished to see only the ignorance which con- 
founds names and things, which usurps when it seeks to 
obey; but a fleet and an army, which are preparing in the 
harbours of Europe, will soon dissipate these clouds, and 
St. Domingo will be reduced, in whole, to the government 
of the Republic." In the proclamatios addressed to the 
blacks, it was announced by the same authority, 'What- 
ever may be your origin or your colour, you are French- 
men, and all alike free and equal before God and the Re- 
public. At St. Domingo and Guadaloupe slavery no long- 
ger exists — all are free — all shall remain free. At Martin- 
ique different principles must be observed.'' 

Nowhere seems on almost exact identity be- 
tween Napoleon's and Old Abe's proclama- 
tions, especially the liberating the slaves in 
some localities and not in others. 



Here we have the tragedy, with our parallel 
close on its heels. 

To show from British abolition sources what 



14 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



a great curse abolition has been to the French 
tod negroes, we quote from p. 251, as follows : 

"Since the expulsion of the French from tlie islanJ, St. 
Domingo has been nominally independent; but slavery 
has been far indeed from beinft abolished, and the condi- 
tion of the people anything but ameliorated by the change. 
Nominally free, the blacks have remained really enslaved. 
Compelled to labor, by the terrors of military discipline, 
for a small port of the produce of the soil, they have re- 
tained the severity, witliout the advantages of servitude; 
the industrious hrtliits, the flourishing aspect of the island 
Have disappeared; the surplus wealth, the agricultural 
opulence of the fields, have ceased; from being the great- 
est exporting island in the West Indies, it has ceased to 
raise any sugar; and the inhabitants, reduced to half their 
Republican task masters, have relapsed into the indolence 
and inactivity of savage life. 

"The revolution of St. Domingo has demonstrated that 
the negroes can occasionally e.\ert all the vigor and hero- 
ism which distinguish the European character: but there 
is, as yet, no reason to suppose that they are capable of 
the continued eftorts, the sustained and persevering toil, 
requisite_to erect the fabric of civilized freedom. An ob- 
Bervation of Gibbon seems decisive on this subject: 'The 
inaction of the negroes does not seem to be the effect 
either of their virtue or of their pusillanimity. They 
indulge, like the rest of mankind, their passions and 
appetites, and the adjacent tribes are engaged in fre- 
quent acts of hostility. But this rude ignorance lias 
never invented any effectual weapons of defense or de- 
struction; they appear incapable of forming any exten- 
sive plans of government or conquest, and the obvious in- 
feriority of their mental faculties has been discovered and 
abused by the nations of the temperate zone. Sixty thou.s- 
and blacks are annually embarked from the coast of Guinea 
but they embark in chains, never to return to their native 
country; and this const.ant emigration, which, in the space 
of two centuries, might have furnished armies to overrun 
the globe, accuses the guilt of Europe and the weakness 
of Africa.' 

"If the negroes are not inferior, either in vigor, courage, 
or intelligence to the European, how has it happened that 
for six thousand years, they have remained in the savage 
state? What has prevented mighty empires arising on the 
banks of the Niger, the Quarra, or the Congo, in the same 
■way as on those of the Euphrates, the Ganges, and the 
Nile? Heat of climate, intricacy of forests, extent of de- 
Bert, will not solve the difficulty, for they exist to as great 
an extent in the plains of Mesopotamia or llindostan as in 
Central Africa. It is vain to say the Europeans have re- 
tained the Africans in that degraded condition, by their 
Tiolence, injustice and the slave trade. 

"Ilowhas it happened that the inhabit.ints of that vast 
and fruitful region have not risen to the government of 
the globe, and inflicted on the savages of Europe the evils 
now set lorth as the cause of their depression? Did not 
all nations start alike in the career of infant improvement? 
and was not Egypt, the cradle of civilization, nearer the 
Central Africa than the shores of Britain? lu the earli- 
j est representations of nations in existence the paintings 
' on the walls of the tombs of the Kings of Egypt, the dis- 
tinct races of the Asiatics, the Jews, the Hottentots, and 
Europeans are clearly marked; but the blue-eyed and 
white-haired sons of Japhet are represented in cowskins, 
with the hair turned outward, in the pristine state of pas- 
toral life, while the Hottentots are already clothed in the 
garb of civilized existence. What since has given so 
mighty an impulse to European civilization, and detained 
in a stationary or declining state the immediate neighbors 
of Egyptian and Carthagenian greatness? It is impossi- 
ble to arrive at any other conclusion but that, inthequal- 
. ities requsiteto create and perpetuate civilization, the Af- 
/ rican is decidedly inferior to the European race; and if 
/ any doubt could exist on this subject, it would be removed 
/ by the subsequent history and presentstate of the Haytian 
Republic. '* — See Mackenzie's St, Domingo, vol. ii, 200, 321. 

The following table contains .the comparative wealth, 
produce, and trade of St. Domingo, before 1789, and in 
1832, after forty years^of nominal freedom . 

St. Domixgo. 1789. 1832. 

Population '. 600,000 280,000 

Sugar exported 672,0000,000 lbs. None. 

Coffee 86,789,000 lbs. 32,000,000 lbs 

Ships employed in trade 1,680 1 

Sailors 27,000 167 

Exports to France .49,720,000 None. 

Importsfrom ditto 9.890,000 None. 



This last act in this abolition tragedy now 
remains for us to perform. The other acts we 
have scrupulously imitated, and it only remains 
for us to finish up the ''afterpiece." The tra- 
gedians, prompters, supes and all are on the 
stage, playing to crowded houses. 



CHAPTER II. 

EFFECTS AXD INCIDENTS OF AGITATION IN THE 
WEST INDIES. 

Agitation of the Slavery Question in England. ..A'lolition 
of the Slave Trade. ..EnglishjPhilanthiopists Define their 
Po.sition against immediate Emancipation. ..Abolition ef 
Slavery in the British West Indies : Eftects of such 
Emancipation. ..Testimony of Anti-Slavery men. ..De- 
cline of Commerce. ..Destruction of Agriculture. ..The 
Negroes Tending to Heathenism. ..Valuable Statistics 
respecting Hayti... Indolence and Destitution of the 
Negroes. ..Present Condition of Hayti. ..Abolition Testi- 
mony ...The Results of Emancipation in Jamaica. ..Census 
and Statistics. ..Great Falling Off in Products. ..Estates 
Going to Decay. ..The Negro Receding into a Savage 
State... .The Public Debt Increasing.. ..The "London 
Times" Owns Up. ..Dr. Chanmng's Prophecy not Ful- 
filled. ..Trollop and the "London Times "....Negroes 
will not render A'oluntary Labor. ..Testimony of numer- 
ous Abolitionists, s-howing the Effects of Emancipation 
in the West Indies... EB'ect in Mexico. ..Mr. Lincoln's 
Opinion. ..Statistics Applicable to the Question in the 
West Indies and the United States. ..General Conclu- 
sions, etc. 

SLAVERY AGITATION IN ENGLAND. 

In England, for more than two centuries, 
the question of abolition was agitated, Can- 
ning, Clarkson,'„Wilberforce, Burke and 
otlier humanitarians devoted their lives to the 
subject, and the world has given them credit 
for unambitious and human impulses, and 
while these philanthropists scorned to make 
political merchandise of their prejudices 
against slavery, their agitation of the subject, 
as in Rome and France, brought to the surface a 
horde of demagogues, cheap philanthropists and 
political agitators, who of course jostled from 
the stage an equal number of Statesmen. 
These agitators are indigious to all civilized 
countries, and are ever ready to mount the 
most popular hobby on which to ride into place 
and power, and herein we have a melancholy 
parallel in this country. 

In 1798 Mr Pitt introduced his bill in the 
House of Commons for the abolition of the 
slave trade, which finally became a law, and 
that inhuman traffic was no longer patronized 
by the British flag. But the system of slavery 
introduced under the tegis of that flag in 
America and in the Bi'itish West Indies, had 
so fastened its fangs on the body politic, and 
so interwoven itself among all relations of 
life, that to attempt its sudden extirpation was 
considered by the wisest and best philanthro- 
pists of the day as an evil even greater than 
the system itself. Paley, the great emanci- 
pationist, after a long agitation exclaimed, 

"The truth is, emancipation should be gradual, or the 
consequences may be terrible." 

Canning, the great English emancipation- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK 



15 



ist, in his speech on the subject in Parliament, 
March 6th, 1824, said: 

If I am asked whether I am for the permaueiit exist- 
anceof slavery iu our colonies, I say no; but if I am ask- 
ed whether I am favorable to its immediate abolition, I 
Bay no; and if I am asked which I would prefer, perma- 
nent slavery or immediate abolition, I do not know wheth- 
er under all the perplexing cireumstances of the case. I 
should not prefer thiu2:s remaining as they are. — Can- 
ning's ficlect Speeclies, p. 414. 

Here, we see the well grounded fears of a 
real philanthropist, who looked to remote con- 
sequences rather than to immediate political 
advantage. 

It was not until 1833, thirt\'-fivc years after 
Pitt introduced his measure for the abolition 
of the slave trade, that England abolished 
slavery in her eighteen West Indian colonies, 
at a cost of §100,000,000, and it should be re- 
membered that the home Government had no 
slaves, and hence nothing to fear, except to 
the pockets of her West Indian merchants, nor 
had she any constitutional barriers in the way 
But, although slavery has been abolished in 
the British West Indies for over thirtj' years, 
and the system of free labor and African free- 
dom thoroughly tested, there is no historical 
dissent from the well known fact th;it both mas- 
ter and slave, in every material fact pertain- 
ing to their commercial prosperity, their phys- 
ical, moral and religious condition, are im- 
measurably below the standard of their former 
condition. Let a few statistical and historical 
facts settle this point. 

'3FFF.CTS OF EMANCIPATION IN TtlK WEST 
INDIES. 

The West India Islands contain about 150,- 
000 square miles of the richest territory on 
the globe, and a climate that no latitude or 
longitude surpasses. A distinguished traveller 
says: 

" It IS extremely difiicult to convey to one unacquainted 
with the richness and variety of the island scenery of the 
tropics, a correct impression of its gorgeous scenery. — 
Islands rising from a crystal sea, clothed Avith a vege- 
tation of surpassing luxuriance and splendor, and of ev- 
ery variety, from the tall and graceful palm, the stately 
and spreading mahogony, to the bright flowers that seem 
to have stolen their tints from the glowing sun above 
them. Birds, with colors as varied and gorgeous as the 
hues of the rainbow, Hit amid the dark green foliage of 
the forests, and flamingoes, with their scarlet plumage, 
flash along the shore. Fish, of the same varied hues, 
glide through waters so clear tliat for fathoms below the 
surface they can be distinctly seen. Turn the eye where 
it will, on sea or land, some bright color flashes before it. 
Nature is here a queen indeed, and dressed for a gala day.' ' 

To this gorgeous picture may be added the 
fact that all the lucious fruits of the tropics, 
oranges, lemons, citrons, mangoes, coffee, 
plantains, bananas, yams, maize, millet, pine 
apples, melons, grapes, &c., grow spontaneous- 
ly. Such a paradise — such a garden of Eden — 
ought to secure wealth, prosperity and happi- 
ness to even the least deserving effort. A light 
'draft' on Prof. Holton's work on Neio Gren- 
eda"^ will pay: 

" What more could nature do for this people, or what has 

*New Grenada: Twenty Months in the Andes. By 
Isaac F. Ilolton, M. A. Harper <t Bros. 



she witliboliien from tbc-m? \Vhat production of any zono 
would be nnattainable by patient iuduntry, (/' the}/ knew 
nf such a virtue ?■ But this valley seems to be encircled 
with the gieattst feitility and the finest cliniiite iu the 
world, only to show the rniracnldus piowrr nf idleness and 
unthrift to keep laird poor ! Here, the fnmily have some- 
times omitted their dinner becaufe there was iwthiiKj to eat 
in the house! Maize, cocoa and rice, when out of season, 
can hardly be had for love or money ; so this valley (Cauca) 
a very Eden by nature, is Jiled willihuhgrf and purerty !" 

A distinguished writer, commenting on the 
above, says: 

" Xow,there are over 2, OfiOjOOOof square miles essentially 
in the same position, degraded iu morals, lazy in habits, 
and worthless in every respect. The improvements under 
the .Spaniards are gone to decay and ruin, while the mon- 
grel iji^pulation do nothing, except insult the name of 
'■(jod and Litierty" by indulging in pruiumciamentos and 
revolutions." 

When God had made all things save man, He 
found there was ''no one to till the ground," 
so he made Adam. Thus, it seems that the 
Divine object in creating man was to "till the 
land"' — to labor and earn his sustenance '"by 
the sweat of his brow," and that people who 
will not labor, defy the purposes of God, and 
his curses must follow, as we shall see. 

The result of French and British philan- 
thropy has been emancipation frovi labor, and 
degrad.vtion. Misery and want is the result of 
that emancipation, because it is historically 
true th:it the Ethiopean will not labor unless 
compelled by the thrift of his Caucasian or 
Castilian superiors, and herein lies the secret 
of retrogression, pauperism and crime, under 
the fatal mistake of philanthropists that all men 
should be equal by human laws, when God by 
His laws peremptorily forbids it. 

In 1800 there was imported from the'West 
Indies cotton to the amount of 17,000,000 lbs., 
and from the United States 19,789,803 lbs. 
Thus, in 1800 they were about equally pro- 
ductive in that fabric. In 1840, under their 
freedom of from 10 to 45 years, the West Indies 
exported only 866,157 lbs. of cotton, while the 
United States exported 743,941,061 lbs. Gar- 
rison, Thompson, and other British agitators, 
had predicted that the West Indies, under the 
new system of freedom would outstjrip the 
slaverj' accursed United States. But tho above 
facts do not show it in this light. 

THE HAYTIENFREE REPUBLIC. 

Ilayti is divided into two grand divisions, 
the Western portion being the Ilaytien, or ne- 
gro colony, and the Eastern the Dominican 
Republic. It is first in size to Cuba, is the 
most luxuriant and fertile of the Antilles, and 
contains 27,690 square miles, of which 17,599 
are comprised in the Dominican Republic. — 
The entire length of the Island is 406 miles 
by 163 broad. The population is estimated at 
from 550,000 to 650,000. The climate and 
natual resources surpass any other locality on 
this planet. Gold, silver, platina, sulphur, 
copner, tin, iron, rock salt, jasper, marble &c. 
&c, exist in abundance, and under the old sys- 
tem the mines and quarries were made to yield 
abundance of wealth, but these have long since 
ceased to be worked, as has the soil, and every 
department requiring labor. 



16 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



In 1790 Ilayti was in the heyday of its pros- 
perity. '-At that time," says a distinguished 
writer, "it supplied half of Europe with sugar. 
It was a French colony and contained a popu- 
lation of 500,090, of which 38,360 were whites 
and 28,370 free negroes, mostly mulattos, the 
rest were slaves." This was the error of the 
great French revolution, when Bkissot was 
agitating the abolition of slavery in the French 
colonies, on the basis of "liberty, equality 
and fraternity." In 1793 thefreedom of Hayti 
was decreed, and the "grand experiment" 
•was entered upon. Let us put in juxtaposition 
a few statistics that exhibit the result of this 
humane course. In 1790, three years before 
emancipation, the exports from Hayti were 
^27,828,000. The following being the princi- 
pal productions that entered into the exporting 
manifests. We compare them below for three 
periods, ranging from 1790 to 1849, the latest 
dates which furnish any reliable statisics: 

1790. 1826. 1840. 

Sugar, lb.s, 16:3,4ti5,ii20 32,8»>4 norn-. 

Coffee, lbs, » 68,151,180 32,189,784 30,008,343 

Cotton, lbs, 6,280, )2(i 020,972 .544, .516 

Indigo, lbs, 9-30, Olti none. none. 

Here is the result of three periods, the first 
three years before emancipation, the second 
thiity-three years after, and the third fifty-six 
years after. It will be seen that the article of 
coffee is the only article that has kept up to 
even an approximation to the original standard, 
the reason is, though flourishing under good 
cultivation, yields moderately well under spon- 
taneous growth, and can be procured without 
agricultural labor, while sugar, indigo, and 
cotton cannot. Here is a striking evidence of 
the worthless indolence of the negro when left 
to himself. The above statistics are taken from 
the United States Commercial Relations, vol. 
1, pp. 561-2, officially reported to Congress 
and published by its order. 

"In collonial times, when tho soil was onlliviilod by 
forced labor, this same country (Hayti) produced for ex- 
port five or six times the amounts now exported." — Aj)- 
pleton's New American Cyclopedia . 

"The public revenue is derived chielly from customs, nav- 
igation dues, monopolies, Ac, and averages about $1,000, - 
000 a year. The expenditures exceed this amount, and 
hence the public debt has been coiistantlviucreasinj;." — 
Ibid. 

But we are not left wholly to statistics. A 
foreign resident at the Haytien capital writes: 

"This country has made, since its emancipation, no pro- 
gress whatever. The population principally live upon 
the produce of the grown wild cofiee plantations; rem- 
nants of the French dominion. Properly speaking. planta- 
tions of the model of the English in Jamaica, or the Span- 
ish in Cuba, do not exist here. XIayti is the most fertile 
and the most beautiful of the Antille<i, it has more moun- 
tains than Cuba, and more space than .lamaica. No where 
the coffee treecoud better thrive than liere, as it especially 
likes a mountainous soil, hut the indol ace of Vie negro has 
hrought the once splendid plantations ''<i dicay . They now 
gather coffee from the grown wild ti ■■ The cultivation 
of the sugar cane has entirely disappe.w ei. and the Island 
that once supplied the one half of Kuiovf with sugar now 
supplies its own wants from Jamaica and the United 
States." 

THE PKESENT CONDITION OF HAYTI. 

The present condition of Hayti is more 
graphically depicted by Mr. E. B.'Undekhill 



in his work just published, eatitled The West 
hidies — their Moral and Social Condition. Mr. 
U. was sent out by the Baptist Missionary So- 
ciety of London, and is an Abolitionist of un- 
doubted orthodoxy. In his description of his 
journey to Port au Prince, he says: 

" Vie passed by many, or through many abandoned plan- 
tations, the buildings in rui7is, the sugar mills decayed, 
and t/ie iron jyans str.wing the road side, cracked and bro- . 
hen. lint for the law that forbids, on pain of confiscation, 
the export of all metals, they would long ago been sold to 
foreign merchants. Only once in this long ride did we 
coine upon a minimise. It was grinding canes, in order 
to manufacture the syrup from which tafia is made,akind 
of inferior rum, the intoxicating drink of the country. 
The mill was worked by a large overshot or water wheel, 
the water being brought by an aqueduct from a very con- 
siderable distance. With the exception of a few banana 
gardens, or sinah patches of maize aiound the cottages, 
nowhere did this magnificent and fertile plain show signs 
of cultivation. 

"In the time of the French occupation, before the Kevo- 
lution of 1798, thousands of hogsheads of sugar were pro- 
duced, now not ond All is decay and desolation! The 
pastures are deserted, and the prickly pear covers the land 
once laughing with the bright hues of tho sugarcane. 

"The hydraulic works erected at v;ist expense, for irriga- 
tion, have crumbled to dust. 2'he plow is an uiilnoivn im- 
plement of culture, although so eminently adapted to the 
gi-eat plains and deep soil of Hayti. 

"A country so capable of producing for export, and 
therefore for the enrichment of its people, besides coffee, 
sugar, cotton, tobacco, cacao, spices — every tropical fruit, 
and many of the fruits of £urope, lies unoccupated, un- 
cultivated and desolate! Its rich mines are neither ex- 
plored nor worked, and its beautiful woods rot in the soil 
where they grow. A little logwood is exported, but ebo- 
ny, niahogony and the finest building timber, rarely fall 
before the woodman's axe, and then only for local use. 
Thepresent inhuhitants despise all servile labor, and are 
for the mostiHirt content with the spontaneous productions 
of tlie soil and forest." 

NIGROES EELArSINii INTO. BAEBAEISJI. 

As showing the tendency of the negro to re- 
lapse into the barbarism of his African pro- 
genitors, we copy Mr. Underhill's descrip- 
tion of what is known as the Vaudoux religion 
or serpent worship: 

"It is a native African superstition, and proves beyond all 
question the rapid return of tho Hayti negroes to the 
original savageism of their African ancestors." 

Mr. Underiiill gives a full description of 
this disgusting, heathenish rite, from which we 
select the chorus. The object of which is a 
small green snake, to worship which the negro 
naturally has a predisposition, but is repressed 
by control of the whites. Of late it has been 
revived in Hayti, and we give the chorus of the 
heathenish exercises: 

Eh! eh! Bomba, hen! hen! 
Conga baflfia te 
Conga mourne de le! 
Conga de ki li 
Conga li ! 

Mr. Underhill further describes this heathen- 
ish rite: 

"The Vaudoux meet in a retired spot, designated at a 
primary meeting. On entering, they take off their 
shoes, and bind about their bodies handkerchiefs, in 
which a red color predominates. The king is known by 
the scarlet band around his head, worn like a crown, and 
a scarf of the same color distinguishes the queen. The 
object of adoration, the serpent, is placed on a stand. — 
It is then worshipped; after which the box is placed on 
the ground, the queen mounts upon it, is seized with vi- 
olent tremblings, and gives utterances to oracles, in re- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



17 



Bponse to tho prayers of the worshippers. A dance 
closes the ceremony. The king puts his hand on the box; 
a tremor seizes him, which is communicated to tlie circle. 
A delirious whirl or dance ensues, heightened by the tree 
use of tafia. The weakest fall as dead, on the spot.— 
Tho bacchanalian revelers, always dancing and turning 
about, are borne away into a place close at hand, where 
sometimes, jinder the tripple excitement of prnmiscuous 
intercourse, drunkenness and darkness, scenes are eiu- 
acted, enough to make the impassable gcds of Africa 
itself gnash their teeth with horror." 

Can it be possible that the advocates of eman- 
cipation find in such lamentable evidences of 
retrogression, encouragement for continued 
zeal in a cause that suffers debasement without 
a remedy? And yet we are told, -'only give 
the negro a chance, and he will become equal 
to the whites!" Mr. Webley, a missionary, 
in writing to the London Missionary/ Herald., 
in 1850, says: 

"These Vaudoux almost deluge the llaytien jiart of tho 
island. They practice witchcraft and mysticism, to an 
almost indefinite extent. They are singular adepts at 
poisoninj: — a person rarely escapes them when he has 
been fixed upon as a victim." 

Such are the sickening orgies of a race we 
are being called upon to make equally free, at 
the expense of millions of treasure and the 
best Caucasian blood in our nation History 
furnishes us no example on this planet where 
the negro race, with every advantage at their 
command, have shown their ability for coloni- 
zation and self-government, ovin approxi- I 
mating that of the white race. 

THE RESULT IN JAMAICA. 

Jamaica is the most extensive of all the 
British West Indies It is longitudinally 150 
miles in extent, and 50 miles broad, contain- 
ing near 6,500 square miles. The census of 
1844 showed the following population: 

Whites 1-5,779 

Mulattoes 68,529 

Negroes 29:3,128 

Total 377,436 

The census of 1861, and the last one taken, 
shows the following: 

Whites i:;,81G 

Mulattoes 81, Olio 

Negroes :j46,37-1 

Total -1-11,255 

Of this number, after twenty-eight years of 
freedom, only 50,726 could read or write. It 
will be seen also, that the white population de- 
creases, while the negro and mulatto portion 
rapidly increased, thus shov.'ing that in time 
the white race must be merged and lost in the 
black race — a not very flattering aspect for the 
pride ot blood. 

Jamaica, like the other West Indies, 
abounds in all the rich minerals, woods and 
tropical vegetation The Island has been un- 
der the paw of the British lion ever since the 
halcyon days of Cromwell, and flourished with- 
out stint till 1838, the expiration of the appren- 
tice system, under the emancipation act. 
Since that time the progress of the Island, has 
been positively downward in al! that constitutes 



a people great, happy and prosperous. Of the 
vast sum appropriated by England for the lib- 
eration of the slaves, §30,000,000 went to the 
Island of Jamaica. We find that according to 
the Encyclojicrdia of Commerce, the following 
as the results for two periods, of exportations: 

Before Emancipation. 

Year. Val. of Products. 
1S09 £3,033,234 



After Emancipation. 



Year. 

1853.. 



Val. of Products. 
£8:37,276 



LeaiUng Products of Jamaica in 1805. 

Sugar, hhds 150,352 

Hum, punch 46,8.37 

Pimento, Itis 1,041,540 

Coffee, lbs 17,961,923 

In 1834, the year emancipation was affected, 
the products stood as follows: 



Produiii, of Jumiiica. in 18.34. 



Sugar, hljds... 
Rum, punch.. 
Pimento, ths. 
Cofl'ee, !!•.« 



84,756 

32,111 

3,605,400 

17,725,731 

The next year, and first under the "free" 
system, the amount of sugar fell oQ" to 77,970 
hhds; coffee to 10,593,018 lbs., &c. 

Products of Jamaica in 1856. 

Sugar, hhds 25,920 

Rum, punch 14,470 

Pimento, lbs 6,f^4S,622 

Coffee, lbs 3,32S,147 

Upon which the author of Results of Eman- 
cipation in the North and }Vest India Islands, 
remarks: 

"The only crop that had increased was that of Pimento 
or ' all-spice,' the increase of which, instead of being an 
evidence of the industry of the negro, is the reverse. The 
Pimento tree grows wild in Jamaica, and rapidly spreads 
over land formerly under cultivation. .4s the plantations 
were abandoned, thcj'were overrun with this tree, and the 
negro women and children pick the berries without the 
trouble of cultivation. The coffee tree to a certain extent 
is like the Pimento, and grows wild in many jplaces, hence 
the production of coffee has not fallen off in the same pro- 
portion as that of sugar, which can only be produced by 
careful cultivation. The coffee crop of Jamaica, however, 
in 1813, before the overthrow of slave labor, was 34,045,585 
lbs,bnt the average crop for the past ten years has not been 
over 5,000,000 lbs., while the sugar crop had fillen in 1853 
as low as 20,000 hhds. These facts and statistics demon- 
strate tho downhill progress of Jamaica, and show what 
may be exi)ected wherever the experiment of free negro- 
ism is attempted. 

"The rapidity with which estates liave been abandoned 
in Jamaica, and the decrease in tho taxable property of tho 
Island, is also astounding. The mov.able and the immov- 
able property of .Jamaica was estimated at £50,000,000, or 
nearly S2o0,000,000. In 1850 tlie assessed valuation had 
fallen to £11, .500,000. In 1857 it was reduced to £0,500,- 
1100, and Mr. Wkstmorel.vnd in a speech in the Jamaica 
House of Assembly, stated it was believed that tho falling 
off would be £2.000,000 more in 1S52. Ir'roni a report 
made to the House of Assembly, of the number and extent 
of the plantations abandoned, during the years 1848, '49, 
'50, '51 and '52, we gather tho following facts: 

Sugar estates abandoned, 12S 

•' " partially abandoned, 71 

Coffee phi ntations abandoned, 96 

" " partially abandoueil, 66 

The total number of acres thus thrown out of cultivation, 
in five years, were 391,187. This is only a sample, for tho 
same process has been going on ever since emancipation. 

"In the five years immediately succeeding emancipation 
the abandoned estates stood as follows: 



18 



FITE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



" 'Sugar estates 140=168,002 acres. 

'" Coffee plautations 465=188,400 acres. 

" ' These plantations employed 39,383 laborers, whose in- 
dustry was therefore at once lost to the world, and the ar- 
ticles they had raised were just so much extracted from 
consumption. The prico of these articles — sugar and 
coffee, was increased, on account of diminished produc- 
tion, and that increased cost re;«resented the tax which the 
world paid for the privilege of allowing Sambo to loll in 
idleness. The Cyclopedia of Commerce says: 

" ' The negro is rapidly receding into a savage state, and 
that unless there is a large and immediate supply of emi- 
grants, all society icill come to a speedy end.and the Island 
become a second Hayti! ' " 

PUBLIC DEBT OF JAM.\1CA. INCREASING. 

Appletons Neio American Cyclopedia 
says that the public debt of Jamaica Las in- 
creased from £529,856 in 1847, to £913.618 in 
1857," or an increase of §191,880 per annum. 

TESTIMONr OF THE LONDON TIMES. 

The London Times, the court organ of the 
British government, is forced to acknowledge 
the bad results of emancipation. Such a can- 
did admission from such a source is worth a 
thousand theoretical, sentimental and fanati- 
cal sermons and speeches, that seek to arouse 
the prejudices, without stopping to consider 
results or oSer remedies. The Times says: 

^^There in no hlinling the truth. Years of bitter expe- 
rience—years of hope deferred, of self devotion unrequit- 
ed, of prayers unanswered, of sufferings divided, of in- 
sults unresented, of contumely patiently endured, have 
convinced us of the truth. It must be spoken out boldly 
and energetically, despite the wild mockings of howling 
cant. 27ie freed West India slave tvill not till the soil for 
luagcs. The free son of the ex-slave is as obstinate as his 
sire. He will not cultivate lands which he has not bought 
for his own. Yams, mangoes and plantains — these satisfy 
his wants. He cares not for your cotton. Sugar, coffee and 
tobacco, he cares but little for, and what matters it to him 
that the Englishman has sunk his thousands and tens of 
thousands on mills,machinery and plantations, which now 
totter on the languishing estates that for years has only 
returned him to beggery and debt? He eats his yams and 
sniggers at'Buckra." We know not vihy this should be, 
hut soil is! The negro has been bought with aprice--the 
price of English taxation and English toil. He has been 
redeemed from bondage hy the sxveat and travail of some 
millions of hard working Englishmen! Twenty millions 
of pounds sterling— §100,000,000— have been distilled 
from the brains and muscles of the free Etiglish laborer, of 
every degree, to fashion tlie West India negro into a "free, 
independent laborer.' 'Free and independent' enough he 
has bacome, God knows, but laborer, he is not, aud so far 
as we can see, never will be. He will sing hymns and 
quote te.xts, but honest, steady industry he not only de- 
tests, but despises!" 

Such is the candid admission of the official 
organ of the British Government, uttered 
about the time — some two or three years ago — 
■when a British Lord submitted a serious propo- 
sition in Parliament to return to slavery in the 
West Indies, under the name and guise of 
cooley indentures. We have forgotten the no- 
ble Lord's name, but recollect quite well the 
general comments it encountered, both in Great 
Britain and this country. 

ABOLITION PROPHECIES THIRTY YE.IRS AGO. 

Let emancipationists look on the above pic- 
ture, and then on the followins- by that great 
champion of abolition, as a prophesy, in 1833 
— the Rev. Dr. Channing: 

"The planters in general would suffer little, if at all, 



from emancipation. This change would make them richir 
rather than poorer. One would think, indeed, from the 
common language on the suliject, that the negroes were 
to be annihilated by being set free; that the whole labor 
of the South was to be destroyed by a single blow. But 
the colored man, when freed, will not vanish from the soil; 
ho will stand there with the same muscles as before, only 
strung anew by liberty; with the same limbs to toil, and 
with stronger motives to toil than before. He will work 
from liope, not fear; will work for himself, not others; and 
unless all the principles of human nature are reversed 
under a black skin, he will work hHter than before. 

"We believe that agriculture will revive, our worn out 
soils will be renewed, and the whole country assume a 
brighter aspect under /ree labo-. . 

TROLLOP AND THE LONCON TI5IE3. 

This has been the syren song of the aboli- 
tionists for centuries, but in no case does it 
tally with historical or physical facts. Mr. 
Anthony Trollop, an Englishman, who has 
written a book on Jamaica, seems to take the 
other view of the matter, from actual observa- 
tion, and not from theory, and the London 
Times thus disposes of the case: 

" A sorvile race, peculiarly fitted by nature for the 
hardest physical work in a burning climate. The negro 
has no desire for property strong enough to induce him 
to labor with sustained power. He lives from hand to 
mouth. In order that he may have his dinner and some 
small fiuerj', he will work a little, but after that he is 
content to lie in the sun. This, in Jamaica, he can very 
easily do, fjr emancipation and free trade have combined 
to throw enormous tracts of land out of cultivation, and 
on these the negro squats, getting all that he wants, 
with very little trouble, and sinking in the most resolute 
f ishion to the savage state. Lying iinder his cotton tree, 
he refuses to work after 10 o'clock in the morning. ' No, 
tan'iv 'ee, massa, me tired, now; me no want more money.' 
Or Ijy the way of variety, he may saj' : ' Xo, workee no 
more; money no nuff; workee no pay.' And so the 
planter must see his cane foul with weeds, because he 
cannot prevail on Sambo to earn a second shilling by 
going into the corn-fields. He calls him a lazy nigger, 
and threatens him with starvation. His answer is: 'No, 
massa; uo starvee now; God send plenty yam.' These 
yams, be it observed, on which Sambo lives, and on the 
strength of which he declines to work, are grown on the 
planter's own ground, and probably planted at his own 
expense. 

"There lies the shiny, oily, odorous negro under his 
mango-tree, eating the lucious fruit in the sun . He sends 
bis black urchin up for a bread fruit, and behold, the fam- 
ily table is spread. He pierces a cocoanut, and lo! there is 
his beverage. He lies on the ground surrounded by or- 
anges, bananas and pine apples. W'hy should he work? 
Let Sambo himself reply; ' No, Massa, me weak in me 
belly; mo no workee to-day; me no like workee just urn 
little moment.' This is a graphic description of the negro 
character where the climate gives him a chance to show 
out bis real nature. The same author says that ' one-half 
of the sugar-estates, and more than one-half of the cof- 
fee-plantations have gone back iyitoa state of busli-' " 

FREE NEGROES WON'T WORK IN AFRICA. 

Negroes seldom ever go voluntai-ily into the 
field to work. Of all the negros in the North 
how many do we see in the fields, the work- 
shops or at the forge? Those who do labor, as 
a general rule, are to be found in the capacity 
of servants in the towns and cities, or retailing 
fruits and nuts at a corner stand Mungo 
Park, many years ago, writing of his travels 
in Africa, said: 

"Paid servants — persons of free condition, voluntarily 
working for pay— are unlcnown here." 

Such is the universal testimony of all travel- 
lers who allude to the subject. 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



19 



CHARACTER OF FREE NEGROES. 

We copy as follows from Results of Eman- 
cipation, before alluded to: 

"In Lewis' Wed Indies, written sovffntcen years before 
emancipation, it is reniarlted: — 'As to free blacks, they 
are unfortunately lazy and improvident; moist of them 
half starved, and only anxious to live from hand to mouth. 
Even those who profess to be tailors, carpenters or coop- 
ers, are, for the most part, careless, drunken and dissipa- 
ted, and never take pains sufficient to attain to any dex- 
terity in their trades. As for a free, negro hiring himself 
out for 2'1antation labor, no instance of such a thing rvas 
ever Icnoxvn in Jamaica!' Earl Grey said in the House of 
Lords, June 18, 1852, 'That it was established by statisti- 
cal facts that the negroes were idle, and falling hack in 
civilization; — that relieved from the coercion to which 
they were freely subjected, and a couple of days labor 
giving them enough food for a fortnight, the climate ren- 
dering clothing and fuel not necessary to life, they had no 
earthly motive to give a greater amount of service than 
for mere subsistance.' 

MORE TESTIMONY. 

"Sir H. Light and Gov. Barklet have both shown 
also, that the majority of the free negroes of the West In- 
dies are living in idleness, and the French colonies, accord- 
ing to a work from M. Vacherot, published a few years 
ago, at Paris, demonstrate the same ruinous result under 
the emancipation act. 

CAPTAIN Hamilton's statement. 

"Capt. Hamilton, on his examination as a witness be- 
fore a select committee of Parliament, stated that ^Ja- 
maica, to ithout any exaggeration had become a desert !! ' 

MR. BIGELOW'S VIEWS. 

"In 1850, Mr. John Bigelow, then one of the editors of 
the New Yor\ Evening Post, paid a visit to Jamaica, and 
wrote a book thereon. As the testimony of an anti- 
slavery man, his statements are given. Mr. Bigelow says 
that the land of that island is as prolific as any in the 
world. It can be bought for 15 to $10 per acre, and five 
acres confer the right of voting, and eligibility to public 
offices. Planters offer ?1,50 per day for labor; sixteen days 
labor will enable a man to buy land enough to make him 
a voter, and the market of Kingston offers a great demand 
for vegetables at all times. These facts, said Mr. Bigelow, 
place indepence within the reach of every black. But 
what are the results? There has been no increase in vo- 
ters in twenty years. Lands run wild. Kingston gets its 
vegetables from the Unired States!' 

MR. BAIRD's OPINION. 

" But we will accumulate proof^pile it up, if necessary. 
Mr. Kobert Baird, who is an enthusiastic advocate of 'the 
glorious act of British Emancipation,' en visiting the West 
Indies for his health, could not fail to be struck with the 
desolate appearance there. 

" 'That the AV est Indies,' says Mr. Baird, 'are always 
grumbling, is an observation often heard, and no doubt it 
is very true that they are so. But let any one who thinks 
that the extent and clamor of the complaint exceeds the 
magnitude of the distress which has called it forth, go to 
the West Indies and judge for himself. Let him see with 
his own eyes the neglected and abandoned estates, theun- 
cultivated fields, fast hurrying hack into a state of nature, 
with all the speed of tropical luxuriance — the dismantled 
and sihni machinery, the crumbling walls and deserted 
mansions, tvhich are familiar sights in most of the Brit- 
ish West Indiaii colonies! Let him then transport him- 
self to the Spanish Islands of Porto Rico and Cuba, and 
witness the life and activity which prevail in these slave 
colonies.- Let him observe for himself the the aetivity of 
the slaves— the improvements daily making in the culti- 
vation of the fields, and in the process carried on at the 
ingenois, or sugar mills — and the general, indescribable 
air of 1:hriving and prosperity lohicii surround the whole — 
and then let him come back to England and say, if he hon- 
estly can, that the British West Indian planters and pro- 
prietors are grumblers, who complain without iulequate 
cause! 



GOV. WOOD S EXPERIENCE. 

"Ex-Gov. Wood, of Ohio, who piid a visit to Jamaica 
in \h-j'i, ruid who is no friend to slavery, says: 

" 'Since the blacks have been liberated, they have be- 
come indolent, insolent, degraded, and dishonest. They 
are a rude, beastly set of vagabonds, lying naked about 
the streets, as filthy as the Hottentots, and I believe worse. 
On getting to the wharf of Kingston, the first thing 
the blacks iif both sexes, perfectly naked, came swarming 
about the boat, and would dive for small pieces of coin, 
that were thrown by the passengers. On entering the 
city, the stranger is annoyed to death by black beggars, at 
every step, and you must often' show them your pistol, or 
an uplifted cane, to rid yourself of their importunities.' 

SEWELL'S views of KINGSTON — A GOD-FOR- 
SAKEN PLACE. 

" Sewell, in his work on the Ordeal of Free Labor, in 
which he defends emancipation, and pleads for still more 
extended privileges to the blacks, says of Kingston: 

"' Thert, is not a house in decent repair; not a wharf in 
good order; no pavement, no sidewalk, no di-ainage, and 
scantj' water; no light. There is nothing like work done. 
Wreck and ruin, devastation and neglect. The inhabi- 
tants, taken en masse, are steeped to the eyelids in im- 
morality. The population shows a natural decrease. Il- 
legitimacy exceeds legitimacy. Nothing is replaced that 
time destroys. If a brick tumbles from a house to the 
street it remains there. If a spout isloosened by the wind, 
it hangs by a thread, till it falls. If furniture is accident- 
ly broken, the idea of having it mended is not entertained. 
A God-forsaken -place, without life or energy. Old, dilap- 
idated, sickly, nltliy, cast away from the anchorage of 
sound morality, of reason and common sense. Yet this 
wretched hulk is the Capital of an Island — an Island, the 
most fertile in the world. It is blessed with a climate the 
most glorious; itlies rotting in ashadow of mountains that 
can be cultivated from summit to base with every product of 
the tropic and tempei-ate regions. It is the mistress of a 
harbor wherein a thousand line-of-battle ships can ride 
safely at anchor.' 

THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ON JAMAICA 
MORALITY. 

" We might fill a volume with such quotations, showing 
the steady decline of the Island, but it is well to note the 
moral condition of the negro. The American Missionary 
Association, is the strongest kind of Abolition testimony 
in regard to the moral condition of the negroes. The 
American Missionary, a monthly paper, and organ of the 
Association, for July, 1855, has the following quotation 
from the letters of one of the Missionaries : 

" 'A man here, may be a drunkard, a liar, a Sabbath- 
breaker, a profane man, a fornicator, an adulterer, and 
such like, and he known to he such, and go to cliapel, and 
hold up his head there, and feel no disgrace for these 
things, because they are so common, as to create a public 
sentiment in his favor. He m.ay go to the cc)mmunion 
table, and cherish a hope of Heaven, and not have his 
hopes disturbed. [A. perfect paradise for Beecuer and 
Greeley. J I might tell of persons guilty of some, if not 
of all these things, ministering in holy things.' 

FROM REPORT OF AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY 
SOCIETY. 

"The report of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery 
Society of 1853, page 170, says of the nego: 

'• -Their moral condition is very far from being what it 
ought to be. It is exceedingly dark and distressing, — 
Licentiousness x>Tevails to a most alarming extent among 
the people. The almost universal prevalence of intemper- 
ance is another prolific source of moral darkness aud deg- 
radation of the people. The masses, among all classes, 
from the Governor in his palace to the peasant in his but 
— from the bishop in his gown to the beggai- in his rags — 
are all slaves to their cups.' 

THE MARRIAGE RELATION AMONG FREE 
BLACKS. 

"So much for 'freedom' elevating the blacks. It is 
complained that the marriage relation is not always re- 
garded where 'slavery' exists, but it would seem from this 



20 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



statement tli.it slavery had done more for the moral im- 
provement of the negro in this respect than he was at all 
diapesed to do for himself. 

"Mr. Underbill endorses the stories of the 'crowds of 
bastard children' in the Island, and says it is 'too true.' 
'Outside the non-conlormist communities,' he says, 'neg- 
lect'of marriage is almost universal. One clergyman in- 
formed me, tliat of seventeen infants brought to his church 
for baptism,fifteen at least would be of illegitimate origin.' 
In fact, fiom all the admissions made, it does not appeal 
there is any more marriage in Jamaica than in Africa. The 
churches, Mr. Underhill allows, are less attended than 
formerly, and there is. evidently little of the religious 
training of the whites left among the people. The negro, 
however, has all the advantages of 'impartial freedom,' 
and 'the highest offices of the state are open to colored 
men — they are found (says Mr. U.)iii the Assembly, in 
the Executive, on the bench and at' the bar. All colors 
mix freely.' This would be the paradise for Seward, 
Phillips and Greeley. 

LOSS OF LABOR AND DECAY OF ESTATES. 

" Mr. Underhill estimates the annual loss of wages to 
the people from the decay of estates, and plantations, can- 
not be less than three hundred thousand pounds, or SI, .500,- 
000. Negroes who work at all cannot be juevailed upon 
to do so generally more than four days in the week, and 
rarely five. Mr. U. also states that it has been officially 
ascertained that twu-tliirds of the persons employed on 
sugar estates are women and children ; yet, notwithstand- 
ing all these facts, the anti-slaveryite still adheres to his 
hobby. lie has excuses and palliations for his friend, the 
negro. True, Jamaica is ruined, bui still emancipation is 
a success. The seasons were poor, the estates were mort- 
gaged — the planters have not treated the blacks kindly, 
and they have bought patches of ground of their own, 
rather thau labor for others. Such are some of the ex- 
cuses of the friends of the negro, but the facts still stand 
out in bold relief, despite the assertions of ' negro mis- 
sionaries,' who are interested in keeping up the delusion. 
The/ttc<sthey do admit. They cannot deny or cojitrovert 
them. This is all we ask. We need none of their ex- 
cuses. In order to relieve themselves of the odiimi of 
having ruined the fairest Island of the Antilles, they will 
naturally look for reasons not chargeable to themselves, 
but figures do not lie. The exports ol Jamaica have been 
gradually decreasing ever since "slaverj-" in the Island 
was interfered with, until they have dwindled down to in- 
significance, and as the London Times says, 'there is no 
blinking the trutli — the negro will not work for wages,' 
and hence ihe tropics are going back to jungle and bush, 
while white men are taxtd double the price they ought to 
be for all tropical products." 

NEGROES ONLY DESIRE TO BE FREED FROM 
LABOR. 

We have a vivid illustration of the fact that 
negroesj -will not work when they can avoid,it,by 
those set "free in the rebel states, by the ope- 
ration of our armies. A correspondent of a 
New York paper says: 

' Their highest idea of freedom is to be freed from labor, 
and permitted to l»sk in the sunshine of idleness." 

MR. Lincoln's testimony. 

Mr. Lincoln in his reply to the Chicago 
Divines, said: 

"And suppose they (the negroes) could be induced by a 
proclamation from me, to throw themselvrs upon us, what 
should we do with them? Gen. Butler wrote me a few 
days since that he was issuing more rations to the slaves 
who had rushed to him than to all the white troops under 
his command! They eat! eat! and that is aU!.'" 

MR. UNDERHILL ON CUB-^. 

The facts we have given relative to several 
of the principal freedomized West India colo- 
nies are true of all, and to the end it may not 
be said that the islands where abolition acjita- 



tion has had no foothold, are in as bad way as 
their neighbors, we will permit an Abolitionist 
to tell his own story in his own way. Mr. Un- 
derhill makes this comparison between Ja- 
maica and Cuba. Of Havana (Cuba) he say^: 

"It is the busiest and most prosperous of all the Antilles. 
It's harbor is one of the finest in the world, and is crowded 
with shipping. Its wharves and warehouses are piled with 
merchandise; and the general aspect is one of great com- 
mercial activity. Its exports nearly reach the annual 
value of nine millions sterling (§45,000,000) and the cus- 
tomers furnish an annual tribute to the mother country, 
over and above the cost of government and military occu- 
pation. Kight thousand ships annually resort to the har- 
bor of Cuba.'' 

CUBA AND JAMAICA COMP.'iBEO. 

The following comparison between the ex- 
ports of Cuba and Jamaica, at three periods — 
before and after emancipation in the latter — 
tells more against the evils of slavery agita- 
tion than whole chapters from the most ready 
pen: 

Exports from Cuba and Jamaica Compared. 

Jamaica in ISOD Sll),166,000 

Cuba in 1826 13,809,388 

Jamaica in 1854 4,480,661 

Cuba in 18.54 31,683,731 

Jamaica in 1859 3,679,403 

Cuba* in 1869 57,455,185 

^^c$t India Pi-oductions before Emancipation. 

Years, lbs. Sugar, lbs. Coffee, lbs. cotton 
Brit. West Ind's 1807 6:36,025,643 31,610,764 17,000,0001 
Ilayti 17';tO 163,318,810 76,835,219 7,286,126 



809,344,453 108,245,983 24, '286, 126 



\yest India Products after Emancipation. 

Years, lbs. Sugar, lbs. coffee Ibscotton 
Brit. Westlndies 1848 313,306,112 6,770,792 427, .529^ 
Uayti 1848 very little. 34,114,717 1,591,454^ 

.313,306,112 40,885,509 2,018,983 



compartxve statistics of the united states 

We close this part of our subject by a refer- 
ence to the comparison between the exports 
from the Northern and Southern States of this 
Union, which maybe found by consulting the 
census statistics published by act of Congress. 

Exports from Free States Exclusively — 1860. 

Fisheries, ?4, 1-56, 4*0 

Coal, 731,817 

Ice, 183,134 

Total free states, ?5, 071, 431 

From Free and Slave States — 1S60. 

Products of the forest, $11,756,060 

Products of agriculture, 20,206,265 

Vegetable food, 25,656,494 

Manufactures 35,154,644 

Itaw produce, 1,. 355, 805 

Total free and slave states, §96,826,299 

*Balanza General Del Commefcio Ue la Isla do Cuba, 
18.59. Uabanal861. 
flSOO. 
11840. 
5l847 . 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



21 



From Slave States ExcIiisicfly—lSiiQ. 

Cotton, $191,806,&S.^ 

Tobacco, 15,906,547 

Kosin and Turpentine, 3,734,527 

Kice, 2,566,390 

Tar and pitch, 151,095 

Brown Sugar, 103,24-t 

Molasses, 44,502 

llemp, S,951 

Total slave states ?214,. ".22,880 

RECAPITULATION. 

Free states exclusivelj-, $5,071,431 

Free and slave states, 96,826,299 

^lave states exclusively, 214,322,880 

Total, ?316,220,G10 

The most careful estimates that have been 
made give the slave states credit for one-third 
embraced in the articles under the head of 
"Free and Slave States." If this be correct, 
the result would stand as follows: 

■Exports from Southern States, $246,598,313 

do Northern States, 69,622,297 

Difference., $176,976,016 

This does not show the greater wealth in 
the South. It only shows that with one-third 
the entire population of the United States, that 
section exports nearly §200,000,000 more to 
foreign countries than the Northern States do, 
and that if we should be so unwise as to Ja- 
maicaize the Southern States, our ''balance 
sheet" with the rest of the world would be slim 
indeed. 

Total r. S. Exports fur Forty Years— \ii\n. to 1S61. 

Cotton, $2,574,834,991 

Tobacco, 424,118,067 

Rice, 87,854,511 

Naval Stores 110,981,296 

Food, 1,006,961,335 

Gold 458,588,615 

Crude ai-ticles, manufactures, &c., 892,010,457 

$5,556,401,272 
Exports from the South exclusively, for Forty Years. 

Cotton, $2,514,834,091 

Tobacco, 425,118,067 

Rice, 87,854.511 

Naval stores, 110,981,296 

One third of food, 335,650,411 

Forty per cent, gold,* 183,588,615 

$3,718,026,991 

The total amount of duty paid during this 
forty years on imports was §1,191,374,443, of 
which 

The South paid, $799,508,378 

The North paid, 392,365,065 

Difference, $407,144,313 

Thus, the financial question to be determined 
now, is, shall the North kill the goose that has 
laid such golden eggs? That these eggs are 
being broken by our "philanthropists,"" we 
have numerous instances of proof.* We make 

*It may be supposed, without reflection, that this esti- 
mate of one third gold for the South, is too high, but it 
must be remembered that California has ouiy been supply- 
ing gold for a few years out of the forty, and that previ- 
ous to that time, our gold was principally taken from the 
Southern states. 



the following quotation from a letter <•'( a dele- 
gate of the Christian Commission at St. Louis, 
to the New York Tribune: 

"After the departure of Pemberton's army, on the 15tli 
of July (1862) thousands of these miserable creatures 
(contrabands) filled the vacant houses, churches, sheds and 
caves. Here they crowded together, sometimes thirty «' 
more in a single room, weary, weak and sick from their 
long march and abstinence, spiritless and sad, and many of 
ihemlotiijing to be once more on old Afassa's plantation." 

EM.A.NCIPATION AND PEONAGE IN MEXICO. 

We might fill our entire space with similar 
articles, but for want of room we must be con- 
tent to refer the reader to the thousands of 
cases exhibiting the sad results of forced eman- 
cipation, to the overburdened columns of the 
public press. We have barely room for the 
following extract from a correspondence by M. 
LaMonte, from Mexico to a Paris journal, in 
1843: 

"Fourteen years ago Mexico atolished slavery in all her 
departments, and the Central American states followed 
her example. A ivorse measure for the slave, as well as 
the Kepuhlic, could not possibly be imagined. It was 
immediately discovered that the freed slaves would not 
work, and the Mexican Congress was forced to pass the 
act of peonage, a species of slavery the most atrocious that 
ever disgraced a civilized nation. Under the old system 
the master was compelled to provide for his slave in sick- 
ness, health and old age. In fact, the slave had all his 
temporal wants supplied by force of self-interest and law, 
and never troubled himself about a thought of the mor- 
row. Under the present system, he is compelled to hire 
himself to some one fur snch length of time as the employ- 
er designates, who, with an eye to profits, surveys the 
laborer, makes calculation how long he will liveas an able 
bodied man, and then hires him for that period, stipulat- 
ing for wages barely sufficient to subsist the man's family 
in health. The law compels a specific perfurniancc of 
this contract, and when old age and sickness oomes on the 
poor peon is turned loose to feed upon the scanty pittance 
of reticent charity, or spend the remnant of his days amid 
the squalid want and vermin of an almshouse. In all the 
essential conditions that guarantee ease and happiness, the 
peon's condition is as much below that of the former 
slave as a Paris mendicant is below a millionaire on 
the Boulevard." 

Mexico abolished slavery in 1829, and had 
we room to displaj' her commercial statis- 
tics, in comparison, the disparity would be 
equally as great as we have shown in regard 
to the AVcst Indies — not that slavery is the 
best condition, or that as an original question 
it would be politic, but having been fastened 
on the body politic, it becomes dangerous to 
all classes to suddenly remove it. 

We have thus shown from irrefutable his- 
tory, the dreadful effects of the enfranchise- 
ment of the slaves of Rome, by promises from 
Roman demagogues and ambitious politicians. 
We have exhibited the terrible consequences 
of the liberation of the slaves of St. Domingo, 
in obedience to the clamors of the Parisian 
abolitionists. We have brought to public gaze 
the retrogade and embittered condition of the 
West Indian and the Mexican "freedmen." 
We have given fac^s and figures that too viv- 
idly exhibit the destructive influence of that 
Utopian Abolition system which Abolition his- 
torians admit was the primeval cause of Roman 
suicide, and which not only cost the French 
nation the Queen of the Antilles, but reduced 
that "gem of the Ocean" — both master and 



22 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



slave — to a condition of meniality for Tfhicl' 
there is no abolition. We have shown, from 
V long array of unimpeachable evidence, that 
this same system is fast reducing the French 
and Eritish West Indies from their former 
proud position of opulance and power, to de- 
gradation, misery and want, without regard 
to caste, condition or color. Have we not 
then, a right to infer from the anab'sis of his- 
tory, and the stern development of physical 
facts, that any principle or policy which beg- 
gars ourselves and destroys the happiness of 
all alike — master as well as slave — white as 
well as black — is radically wrong, especially 
since the devotees of this Utopian philan- 
thropy can point to no living fact within the 
world's history where the political agitation of 
the slavery qusstion, has been of the least 
practical good service? And have we not a 
right to suppose that the effort to bring all 
grades of huaian society to one common level, 
as common partakers of common rights and 
privileges — in short, to do by legislation what 
God Himself has never seen fit to do, is at 
least one step beyond our prerogatives? 

m'kensie's opinion. 

Nor is it our purpose to argue that slavery 
is right or politic. We have nothing to do 
with it as an original question. AVe must 
treat it as a fact fixed by causes long anterior 
to our day, and by analogy to consider the 
consequences of its sudden demolition, by 
means known to have failed in every instance.'' 

"No miitter," says McKensie, "how wortliy the motive 
of phihiuthropists, histoiical facts stare us in the face, 
that it is misplaced philanthropy to endeavor to 
elevate the African to an equality with the Caucassian 
race. Kither the inferior becomes more abject and mise- 
rable, or both, like mixing tar with water, deterioate, 
and will finally go into irretrievable decline. An inferior 
and suijerir race cannot exist together on terms of equal- 
ity." 

Indeed, this was almost the identical lan- 
guage of President Lincoln to the negro dele- 
gation that called upon him in Washington. 

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 

Are we to read our fate by the light of past 
history that sheds its hideous glare around us? 
We are now in the midst of a most gigantic 
revolution, receiving its main source of nour- 
ishment, and basing its excuses for the obla- 
tion of blood that now crimsons the soil of half 
this continent, on the same portentious cloud 
of agitation, behind which the sun of Roman 
greatness sat to rise no more — the same spe- 
cies of agitation that for two centuries shook 
the British Empire from centre to circumfer- 
ance, and has resulted in a confirmed failure 
of its objects in her West India possessions — 
the same grade of agitation 'that not only lost 
to France the "Queen of the Antilles," but 
has, to all present appearances, blotted out St. 
Domingoian happiness — the same restless, 
meddling, fanatical agitation that forced Mexi- 
can slaves from one species of servitude into 
an infinitely more degrading one — an agita- 
tion, that no truthful pen of histoi'y has shown, 



or can show, has ever wrought any permanent! 
lasting good to either the ensls? i or the en- 
slavers — an agitation, marked,." every stage 
of its animus or progress, fron. ■ omish agra- 
riauism, and French Jacobism, . ivn to Amer- 
ican political Puritanism, by -juidshness and 
ambition, having no parallels, smd but few ex- 
ceptions. 

As before stated, we offer no defense of 
slavery. That is far from our purpose or de- 
sign. As an original question, it has, in our 
estimation, absolutely nothing to recommend 
it, save, perhaps, some passages of Holy AVrit, 
to which we by no means appeal — nor do we 
fall back on a common, yet ingenious argument, 
that any species of servitude is slavery — that the 
weak and ignorant ever were, and ever will be 
subservient to, and consequently the slaves, in 
an essential degree, of the wise, the wealthy 
and powerful. We ask no such aids as these, 
however well grounded in the logic of philoso- • 
phy. We freely grant, without equivocation 
or mental reservation, that to our view, legal- 
ized slavery is an evil, and while from our 
stand point of education, moral and reliaious 
training, we revolt when asked to defend the 
system, as of right, it is our duty, neverthe- 
less, to treat it in all its phases, as a fixed fact, 
as we would any other great evil which the 
highest wisdom and holiest purposes of the 
world have failed to overthrow. We must treat 
it as a defacto system, having its germ in causes 
beyond the control of the people of this era. 
The present generation is not responsible for 
the existence of slavery. Mr. LiNcoLNin his 
first annual message insists that the North is as 
much responsible as the South for the exist- 
ence and continuance of slavery. 

None but the merest criminal quack would 
cut the throat of his patient to cure a tumor on 
his neck, and the world would decide it crimi- 
nal nial practice to eviscerate one afllicted with 
a cancer in his stomach, or to amputate a limb 
to rcmeve iusipient eresipelas. 

Good and wise statesmen from the earliest 
period of our history saw this tumor, this can- 
cer and this malady on the body politic. 
They grappled with the disease, and treated 
the patient according to the best skill and 
science of the age. They dared not apply 
the cauterizing lancet, lest its sudden sever- 
ance from the system, and society to which it 
had been immemorially attached, should ex- 
pire under the operation. Among all the il- 
lustrious statesmen and philosojihers that have 
adorned the history of our common country, 
not one has ever been able to draw from the 
logic of past or present events, or from the 
theories of the future, a satisfactory solution 
to this vexed problem. Not one has been able 
to practically dispose of the question, with 
safety to the Caucasian and humanity to the 
African races on this continent. 

To suddenly transport four millions of bonds- 
men from a long, immemorial servitude, under 
the besetting improvidence, want of care for 
themselves, ignorance, low vices and indolence, 
to a condition of freemen, with all the untu- 
tored responsibilities of providing against 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



23 



rant, surrounded by the snares of temptation 
ad vice t( hich the negro character too free- 
T yields. 'hout those checks of family po- 
ce regu ^ns that have for centuries re- 
trained . inferior race, would inevitably 
ropogate i eries untold for both classes, that 
ges could ^ot eiface; and, the great question 
i, as it ever has been, Which is the greater 

■ vil, to suddenly force eviancipation^ or per- 
. lit God, in Ilis administration of human af- 
I lirs to solve a problem that many nations 

■ ave, for centuries, been in vain endeavoring 
determine by edicts, codes and Proclama- 
ions, and if it be asked, "Why not try it, as 
etributive punishment on the 'cause of the 
invV " the answer has already been fur- 
.ished by the tears and blood of nations that 
ave been poisoned by quaffing from the same 
halice. We have more to fear from punishing 
urselves than others, in th's matter. 

If histor5'has any significance, can we afford 

D repeat the experiment? That is a question 

ow before the nation. The people must be 

responsible for their answer. Our duty ends 

rhen wo have placed the panorama of veritable 

' istory before them. 

Gov. Dennison (Rep.) in his message to the 
)hio Legislature, in 1861, sayts: 

"An act of immediate general emancipation, throwing 
jur millions of the colored caste loose ou society, North 
:'nd Sonth, would leave them more enslaved than they are 
ow. "Without the intelligence, power, and means of a 
\aster of the superior race, to support them in the com- 
etition of that race, in the business of life, they v;ould 
■erish. The North rejecting them, as it has done in many 
tales, and might do in others, the four millions let loose in 
he South, would encounter a war of castes — A WAll OF 
JXTEE.MINATIONI" • 

Gov. Denison had probably been reading the 
listory of the West Indies. 



CHAPTER III. 

niSTOilY OF CAUSES OF WAR. 

laTery not the Cause of the War. ..Illustrations showing 
the Absurdity of the Claim that it is. ..Henry Ward 
Beecher declares the Constitution to be the Cause. ..Sen- 
ator Douglas' Testimony... Alex. Sterens' Views. ..The 
Bebel Iverson on the "Cause". ..Gov. Rhftt on ditto 
...The Rebel Benjamin, with Republican aid, creates a. 
"Cause". ..The Constitution the "Cause". ..Early Times 
...The Three Parties in 17S6...Alex. Hamilton's "Strong 
GoTernment"... Early Opposition to the Constitution... 
Vote close in some of the State CunTeBtion8...The Four 
Rebellions. ..Shays' Rebellion. ..South Carolina Rebellion 
in 1832 — The great Abolition Rebellion. ..Thegrea: South- 
ern Rebellion of lS61...What the Cause of the War... 
Abolition Petitions lor Dissolution... A Public Debt a 
Public Blessing. ..The object to Destroy the Governm«nt 
...Know-Nothingism as an Element to Wr»ck the Gov- 
ernment, by placing Power in the hands of its Destroy- 
ers.. .Numerous Extractsin Proof.. .Treason of the Clergy 
in 1814...Trea8onof the Federals in 1814... Support of the 
Government "Reprobated" by Federal Reprobates, Ac, 

IS SLAVERY THE CAUSE OF THE WAK? 

"Mad, let us grant him then, and now remains 
That we find out the cause of this defect; 
Or rather say the cause of this defect. 
For this effect defective comes by cause. 

\Shal:espearc. 

So far as this question can be determined, 
history and facts must sit as umpires. That 



slavery was even the pretext for the present 
rebellion, maj- be safely denied, for it cannot 
be supposed any people would rebel against 
their own chosen institutions, but that the agi- 
tation of the slavery question gave to ihe pre- 
text for war, its present momentum and its in- 
sipient status no one can in truth deny The 
argument, based on the assumption that 
'slavery is the cause of the war" — that to put 
a stop to the effect we must remove the cause, 
is fallacious both in fact and theory. As we 
proceed, we shall endeavor to show it is not 
true in fact, and will endeavor here to exhibit 
the absurdity of the theory. 

(.AISE AND EFFECT ILLVSTRATED. 

It is asserted, and we believe no one has 
ever questioned the fact, that religion has been 
the cause of more wars and bloodshed than all 
other causes combined since the advent of man 
on this planet. Shall we argue that therefore 
religion should be abolished, to prevent the 
clashing of religious antagonisms? Bread was 
the "cause" of the great bread riot in London, 
in the 16th century. Should bread be abolish- 
ed to remove the "cause" of bread riots? 
Banks have been the "cause" of numerous 
bank riots. Will bankers consent to the aboli- 
tion of that "cause?" The conscription act 
was the "cause" of the great anti-conscription 
riot in New York, in IStiS. Will the radicals 
be sufficiently consistent to ailmit, that to pre- 
vent such recurring evils in the future, the 
conscription act should be abolished? 

These illustrations might be almost indefi- 
nitely multiplied, but we have given enough to 
show that an antecedent is not necessarily a 
"cause," or if it be a cause, the removal of it 
will not necessarily cure the evil. A cask of 
powder placed beneath a dweling is perfectly 
harmless, until some "agitator" applies the 
torch, that developcs its destructive powers, 
and so it is with the slavery question. So long 
as agitators permitted it to remain where our 
fathers placed it, all was prosperity and peace, 
but the moment fanatical agitators applied the 
spark, the magazine exploded, and the whole 
nation is now writhing in the agony developed 
by the incendiary's torch. 

MR. BEECHER HITS THE "CAUSE." 

We are more than half inclined to believe 
that Henry Ward Beecher was nearer right 
than that divine usually is, in political mat- 
ters, when he declared — 

"The truth is that it is the Constitution it.stlf that is 
the cause of every division. * « * 

It has been the fountain and father of all our troubles." 

Not that this should be, but that demagogues 
<who have hated our government from the start, 
have made it so. It is no doubt too true that 
the constitution has been made the "cause of 
every division,^' but had it not been for the 
slavery agitation, that "cause" could never 
have developed itself. 

The Republican press have been in the habit 
of quoting the following to show that the South 



24 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TBXTS. 



had nothing real to complain of. It will an- 
swer our end quite as well for another purpose, 
and that is to show, just what we are consider- 
ing, that there has long existed a party in this 
countrj' bent on the dissolution of the Union. 
The abolitionists furnished them with the 
slavery agitation, which answered their pur- 
pose as Si pretext, and th;it was all they wanted. 

])OUGL.\S OX THE "C.\.USE." 

Said Senator Douglas in the last speech he 
ever made: 

"/asJt you to reflect, and then x>ointovl any act that has 
ieen done, any duty that hct.-i been omitted to he done o/ 
whichany of tliese disunion ists can j unity complain. Yet 
we are told simply because one party has succeeded in a 
Presidential election, therefore tliey choose to consider that 
their liberties are not safe, and tljerefore they break up 
the Government." 

ALEXANDER STEMIENS SPURNS THE SLAVERY 
"CAUSE." 

Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice Presi- 
dent over the Southern Confederacy, said, 
when the question of Secession was pending 
before the people of Georgia: 

" What right has the North assailed? 'What justice has 
been demanded? and what claim founded in justice and 
right has been withheld? Can eitlier of j'ou name to-day 
one single act of wrong, deliberately and purposely done 
by the Government at Wasliington, of whiclj the South 
can complain. I challcngethe answer .'' 

THE REBEL IVERSON OX THE "CAUSE." 

During the debates in the last Congress be- 
fore the several states, except South Carolina, 
had seceded, Mr. Iversox, a distinguished 
Senator from Georgia, in the Senate Chamber, 
said: 

"Sir, before the 4th of March, before you inaugurate 
your President, there will be certainly five states, if not 
eight of them, that will be out of the Union and have 
formed a constitution and form of Government for them- 
selves. * « * * *• Toil talli ahout repealing the per- 
sonal lihcrti/ hills as a concession to the South! Repeal 
them all to-morrow, sir, and it would not stop this revo- 
lution, * * * * * Nor do we suppose there will be 
any overt acts on the part of Mr. Lincoln. For one, I do 
not dread these overt acts. I do not propose to wait for 
them. * * * * * Now, sir, we intend to go out of 
this Union. I speak what I believe upon this floor, that 
before the 4th of March, five of the (Southern states, at 
least, will ha\* declared their independence; and I am 
satisfied that three others of the cotton states that are now 
moving in this matter are not doing it without dit-e con- 
consideration. Ifc have looked over the flcld. 

THE ELECTION OF LINCOLN NO "CAUSE '■' 

Gov. RiiETT, in the South Carolina secession 
convention, in December, 1860 — ^just after the 
Presidential election — said: 

"The election of Lincoln was not the cause of secession. 
Disunion has been a clicrislicd project for the last thirty 
years." 

Senator Toombs, in his Georgia speech, 
brought up the old original grievance about 
Northern commercial advantages. 

the rebel benjamin tried to create a 
"cause." 

Early in 1860 Senator Benjamin made a 
speech denouncing Douglas, and eulogizing 



LixcoLX. This was circulated all over the 
North under the franks of Republican members 
of Congress, and when Benjamin had succeed- 
ed in electing Lincoln he seized the event as 
a warrantable pretext to dissolve the Union. — 
He knew that with Doglas as Presdient he 
could not use the slavery ((uestion as a pretext, 
hence the effort to create a catisus beli, and 
then take advantage ef it. 

THE ''cause" dates FROM THE BEGINNING. 

From the beginning there has been a pow- 
erful party opposed to our form of government. 
If the reader will consult Elliott's Debates, 
and the "Madison Papers," and make himself 
familiar with the tone of opinion that prevailed 
in the National and State Conventions that 
formed and adopted our present Constitution, 
he will perceive that a powerful minority ex- 
isted in those days against the principles de- 
clared by our Constitution. Mr. Mason was 
in favor of "a President for life, his successor 
being chosen at the same time — a Senate for 
life," &c. Various were the objections to the 
Constitution, but most of them arose from local 
prejudices and interests. Some members of 
the South Carolina Convention objected to a 
Union under the Constitution, because'it gave 
too much commercial advantage to the North- 
ern States, while members of the New Eng- 
land Conventions were equally opposed because 
of certain Southern advantages, among which 
was the Fugitive clause, and the three-fifths 
representation, &c., and in all tho debates of 
those times the student of history will find a 
marked coincidence between the reasons ad- 
vanced against adopting the. Constitution, and 
those of latter-day politicians against its en- 
forcement. It was predicted at the time, by 
those in favor of a "strong government." that 
it would be, just what Beecher says it is, the 
"father of troubles." 

THE THREE PARTIES THAT FORMED THE CON- 
STITUTION. 

Mr. Carey, in his Olive Brayich, a work of 
some 450 pages, published in 1815, says there 
were three classes in the National Conven- 
tion that formed our Constitution — the purely 
Democratic, who had a constant dread of Fed- 
eral encroachments, and were for gaguingthe 
power of the General Government to the lowest 
scale; a Democratic Republican party, that 
desired to invest the Federal Government with 
just enough power to make it efficient, and no 
more; and the Monarchists, "a small but active 
division," who utterly repudiated a Republi- 
can form of government. This faction ulti- 
mately attached themselves to the Federal 
party. 

Hamilton's "strong government." 

Alexander Hamilton, a leading Federal- 
ist of that day, under date of New York, Sep- 
tember 16, 1803, in a letter to Timothy Pick- 
ering, Esq., defined his idea of government, 
from which we select the following: 

" The highest toned propositions which I made in the 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



:^o 



Conyentiou were for a President, Senate and Judges during 
good behaviour, though I would have enlarged the legis- 
lative power of the General Government," which Mr. 
Caret pronounces equivalent to " a President tor life. — 
Olive Branch, p. 88. 

EARLY OPPOSITION TO THE CONSTITUTION. 

Unfortunately, we have not the full proceed- 
ings of all the conventions that adopted the 
Constitution, yet -we have sufficient to show, by 
speech and vote, that it encountered a gigantic 
opposition, and. as Mr. Madison often re- 
marked, in his voluminous correspondence on 
the subject, its fate was shrouded in doubt until 
the last moment. 

Rhode Island was ever attached to the mon- 
archial form of government, and refused to 
accredit delegates to the national convention. 
North Carolina held back for a long while, and 
in every State a most determined opposition 
was manifest, but at last the Democratic spirit 
prevailed, and for a time the factious "Charter- 
ists" yielded assent. Then, as now, the op- 
ponents of the constitution opposed it for 
diverse reasons, according to location, but they 
acted together as one man, for the same pur- 
pose, each granting to the other the right to 
use pretexts the most popular in the several sec- 
tions to which they belonged. The opponents 
in New England sought the pretext of slavery, 
and other localized popular ideas, while those 
equally opposed in the South, used the com- 
mercial pretext for their opposition, and this 
parallel of mutual opposition for different and 
local reasons, has been kept up to this hour. 

THE VOTE A CLOSE THING. 

The following shows the test votes on adopt- 
ing the constitution in the several States 
named. We have not the record of the other 
States: 

Teas. Nays. Ab. 

South Carolina, 145 7.3 14 

Massachusetts, 187 168 

New York, 31 29 

"Virginia, 90 78 

Maryland resolved not to take a vote, and 
voted to suppress the records of ayes and noes, 
and then immediately adjourned. Randolph 
and Mason, of Virginia, and Gerry, of Mas- 
sachusetts, refused to sign the constitution, as 
members of the National Convention; the 
former, however, finally favored it, and was 
charged by Patrick Henry with what was 
akin to bribery. 

This opposition to our government has never 
ceased from that day to this, and to weld all 
the links of our historical chain, we will con- 
sider — 

THE four rebellions. 

These, we can but briefly notice, as it is es- 
sential to a proper appreciation of the details 
that are in various ways their cotemporaries 
and causes, as we shall show in the progress of 
this work. 

Shays' Rebellion. 

1st. The Shay's. Rebellion, which broke forth 
with armed resistance to the Government, in 
3 



Massachusetts, in 1786-7, at the very time our 
fathers were deliberating on bringing forth (as 
Mr. Lincoln said at Gettysburg) the new 
Government. The pretext for this rebellion 
was alledged to be the "oppressions of Gov- 
ernment." (All rebellions have their pretexts.) 

The Rehellion of 1832. 

2d. The South Carolina Rebellion of 1832, 
when the "oppressive tarift' laws'' (called by 
South Carolina, before the constitution. North- 
ern commercial advantages) were made to fig- 
ure as the pretext. This Rebellion, though 
formidable, and enlisting the bittewaet passions 
of that portion of the South, wns principally 
confined to the hot-spurs of South Carolina, 
whose ancestors had opposed the constitution, 
and hated our form of government, and who 
longed for an opportunity to put in operation 
their cherished system of Aristocracy, similar 
to that of England, and who held, with the 
same class hailing from New England, that "a 
national debt was a national blessing." But, 
failing to use this pretext with sufficient success 
to arouse armed resistance, the excitement was 
finally quelled, partly by Old Hickory's firm- 
ness, and partly by Mr. Clay's compromise 
tariff of 1S33, and partly from the want of a 
disloyal peasantry to back up the malcontents. 

The Great Abolition Rebdlion. 
3d. The great Northern rebellion, which 
particularly manifested itself in public laws, 
(personal liberty bills) inflamatory declama- 
tions and resolves by leading men, which ap- 
pealed to the people onthQ pretexts of •'slavery 
aggression," to resist the laws of Congress and 
the mandates of the Supreme Court of the U. 
S. \_See Charles Sumner's speech at Worces- 
ter. Aug. 7, 1854, and Wisconsin conspiracy .y 
This rebellion was formidable and threatening 
to the worst degree. The wealth of the North 
was poured out, free as water, to set in mo- 
tion a train of circumstances that should "fire 
the Northern heart" to resistance, vi gt armis, 
as was the case in many instances, particular- 
ly ia Wisconsin, where armed mobs, unrebuked 
but encouraged by their partizans in office and 
out of office, forcibly, and for a long time suc- 
cessfully resisted the laws of Congress and the 
decisions of the Court of last resort. [The 
proofs of these outrages will appear under the 
head of "Revolutionary spirit of Republican- 
ism.] This rebellion partially developed itself 
between the periods of 1854 and 1860, in which 
the Sharp's Rifle raid in Kansas, the Helper 
"crisis" and the John Brown raid formed no. 
inconsiderable parts of the general conspiracy. 
All these and their kindred plots had their 
germ in revolutionary guilt, occasionally "crop- 
ping out" in the role of monster petitions to 
Congress from the New England states, pray- 
ing for a dissolution of the government. The 
pretext for this, not altogether bloodless revolu- 
tion, was the slavery question, but the gist of 
the indictment goes back of the Constitution. 

The Great Rebellion of 1861. 
4th. The great Southern rebellion of 1861, 



26 



FITE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



the disasters of which are too fresh and pain- 
ful to be recited here. The pretext for this 
rebellioH was the slavery question, and he who 
reads may learn, without a tutor, that this 
pretext was used only because it was the most 
convenient to arouse the Sou'^hern fears and 
prejudices and to "fire the Southern heart'' to 
the pitch of armed resistance to what South- 
ern demagogues had educated the people to 
believe, was danger and destruction to their 
domestic happiness. Thus did Prretonean cun- 
ning inaugurate Macedonian strife, and the re- 
sult is a worse than Carthagenian war. 

Having thus briefly and historically sketch- 
ed antecedent events down to the advent of our 
present troubles, let us enquire, 

WHAT IS THE CAfSE OF THIS WAR? 

As we have seen, the real, long slumber- 
J ing caii.te or motive for this war existed not so 
. much iu hatred of slavery as in the hatred for 
the Constitution, which manifested itself long 
before the adoption of that instrument, and 
was confined to no section. The Northern Ab- 
olitionists and tlie Southern nuUifiers, while 
they used antipodeal means, were banded to- 
gether to accomplish the overthrow of the gov- 
ernment, for the proof of which '' let facts be 
submitted to a candid world." 

J. Q. ADAJIS PRESENTS A PETITION FOR DISSO- 
LUTION. 

On the 24th of February, 1842, .John Quincy 
Adams presented a petition in the House of 
Representatives, signed by a large number of 
citizens of Haverhill, Mass., for a peaceable 
dissolution of the Union, "assigning a? one of 
the reasons, the inequality of benefits confer- 
red upon the diti'erent sections. \_See Blake'' s 
History of Slavery , j^- 524. 

MR. ADAMS DEFENDED BY SOUTHERNERS. 

This caused great excitement in Congress, 
and although ostensibly aimed at slavery, Mr. 
Adams found many of its warmest defenders 
among slaveholders at the South. In the 
course of the debate, Mr. Botts of Va. warmly 
defended Mr. Adams, and considered the pre- 
sentation of this petition a bagatelle, compared 
with the open advocacy for dissolution by Mr. 
Upsher, the then Secretary of the Navy. — 
iSeep. 527. 

GIDDINGS PRESENTS A PETITION FOR DISSO- 
LUTION. 

On the 28th of February, 1842, Mr. Gid- 
DiNGs presented a petition from a large num- 
ber of abolitionists oi Austinburg, in his dis- 
trict, praying for a dissolution of the Union, 
and a separation of the slave from the tree 
states. Mr. Triplett, of Kentucky, consid- 
ering the petition disrespectful to both houses, 
moved that it be not received. Ayes, 24; (for 
reception) noes, 116. — [See Ibid, p. 529. 

FACTIONS OE EOTII SECTIONS DESIRED DISSO- 
LUTION. 

These two simple facts show that the feeling 



existed. North as well as South, in favor of a 
dissolution of the Union, as the feeling existed 
at the close of the 18th century against the 
system of government we did adopt. The old 
embers of dissolution were still alive, and only 
required an excitement to fan them into ablaze. 
Two things, motive and opportunity are ne- 
cessary for the perpetration of any wrong. — 
The motive for dissolution consisted in the 
original desire, patented for heirs and success- 
ors, to have what Hamilton and his friends 
termed a "strong government," generally un- 
derstood to mean an aristocracy, similar to that 
of England, with such modifications as might 
be adapted to the occasion. Among the objects 
to be attained was a large standing army and a 
heavy public debt, owned by the favored few, 
to whom the masses should p.iy tribute, under 
the guise of interest — that the main public offi- 
ces should be held by the rich and noble for 
long periods, or for life, &c. These, among 
other things, were the motives for dissolution, 
and a separation between the Northern and 
Southern states. The aristocrats of each sec- 
tion desired a monopoly in these au'l sundry 
other franchises, but the original weakness of 
the colonies, and the fear of foreign powers, 
together with the will of the Democratic mass- 
es, prevented dissolution in 1787-9. Still, 
the motive existed, and the only thing wanting 
was the occasion. The argument was often 
and vigorously advanced, that "a great na- 
tional debt would be a national blessing" — 
even as late as 1840 this was a leading argu- 
ment, and tlie various propositions to distribute 
the prjceeds of the sales of the public lands, 
and to engage in a general system National 
Improvements — the establishment of a monster 
National Bank,. &c. — all had their germ in the 
desire to create a great national debt. Prohib- 
itory tariffs, under the specious guise of "pro- 
tection to American industry,"' were also to 
play their part in clipping the amount received 
from customs, and thus to swell the national 
debt, but tiie laboring m.isses saw in all these 
efiFort,^ to create a heavy national debt, the 
foundation for their enslavement, to sweat out 
taxes to pay the interest. The West saw that 
Wall street. State street, and the monetai^ 
marts of the East would act as sponges for all 
time to suck up the entire revenue of its indus- 
try, and they put a veto on all those measures. 

OB.JECT OF THE KNOW NOTHINv! ORGANIZA- 
TION. 

Though the moiiife still existed in its origi- 
nal power, the occasion had not yet arrived, 
and it was feared never would so long as the 
Democratic legions, who thronged our shores, 
as refugees from aristocratic and pauperized 
Europe, were permitted to vote, and the occa- 
sion was sought in the abridgment of the elec- 
tive franchise, so as to exclude this powerful 
influx of voters from the polls, through the 
mystic operations of the Know Nothing order. 
This object, although successful in most of the 
New England States, utterly failed in the Mid- 
die and Western States. The Cleveland Her- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK 



27 



aid, a sheet that has always opposed the Dem- 
ocratic party, said: 

"TFe unhesitatingly aver that seven-tenths of the for- 
eigners in our land, who hoiu in obedience to the Pope of 
Rome, are not as intelligent as the full blooded Africans 
of oua state — tve loill not include the part bloods." 

CHICAGO TRIBUNE ON " VOTING CATTLE." 

The following, from the Chicago Tribune, 
though out of chronological order, will equally 
illustrate our point, that the opponents of De- 
mocracy have deemed it necessary to their pur- 
pose to browbeat the foreign voters into silence. 
In alluding to the monster torch light proces- 
sion that turned out to welcome Douglas to 
Chicago, October 5, 1860, the Tribune said: 

"Taken altogether, the squatter reception, last evening, 
fell below what had been promisetl, but furnished an in- 
stance of what a few determined wire pullers can do with 
a few hundred voting cattle" — (alluding to the Irish and 
Germans . ) 

KNOW NOTHIXGISM ILLUSTRATED. 

In a Republican meeting in Putnam coun- 
ty, Illinois, in 1860, Mr. Elijah W. Green 
delivered himself as follows: 

" Me. Chairman: — It is claimed bj- some here to-day, 
that it i? not policy to niMninate a full ticket, on account 
of the Dutch. Some suppose we should not nominate a 
man against RoiHEMAX. I saj-, Mr. Chairman, we don't 
want to favor the Dutch; we don't want tc borrow any 
Dutch Totes, nor trade them any white votes. If thoy 
don't want to vote our ticket, let tliera g-o to hell! ! We 
have vjhiie votes enough, and can do without them. — 
Neither do we want the Irish Catholics in our party. We 
have lohite men in our party, and don't want the Irish or 
Dutch." 

MORE KNOW NOTUINGISM. 

A Republican candidate for the Senate, in 
Rock IslEtnd countj. 111., in 1860, said: 

" Suppose I were to tell you that I despise tlie Pope and 
hate the Tajjists, and detest the Irish Catholic voting 
cattle, who swarm around our polls at election times! — 
* * * The Douglasites depend upon the fiithfuluess 
and ignorance of their Irish Catholic allies. We expect 
nothing fiom the C.itliolic element in the next election. 
All that was worth having of New Yo: k Americanism and 
Know Nothiugism joined the Kepublican party weeks 
ago." 

FEDERAL KNOWNOTHINGIS.M. 

"The real cau.so of tiie war must bo traced to the influ- 
ence vi woiihlesxfurcif/ri'rs over tlie press and the delibe- 
ratioKs of the (jovermnent in all its branches. — Response 
to the Message of Guv. t.irong,of Mass.,bi/ the Assembly, 
June, ISll. 

GEN. SCOTT's VIEWS. 

"1 now hesitate between extending the pei-iod of resi- 
dence before naturalization, and a total repeal of all acts 
of Congress on the suliject — my mind inclines to the lat- 
te.."" — General Scott in his celebrated JVative American 
Letter. 

And, at another time he continued 

"Concurring fully in the principles of the I'hil idelphia 
movement." 

Which '-movement" was started for his benefit 
by the Native American party, in 1852. 

"If I had the power, I would erect a gallows at every 
landing place in the city of New York, and suspend every 
cursed Irishman as soon as the steps upon our shore." — 
Seriuirlcs of Mathew L. Davis on receiving the news of 
the Democratic triumph in yexu York, in 1852. 



"It is our opinion, as our readers well know, that no 
man of foreign birth should be admitted to the exercise of 
the political rights of an American citizen." — Albany 
Daily Advertiser. 

"Wo could not find any other remedy against the 
threatning danger, than a repeal of all naturalization 
laws." — Col. iVebb, of JVew I'ork. 

"All naturalization laws should be instantly repealed, 
and the term preceding the enjoyment of civil rights ex- 
tended twenty-tivc years."— J/r. Clarh; Whig Mayor of 
New Tori; 

All the leading Know-Nothings of the coun- 
try, who have not seriously relented their here- 
sies against foreigners, are to-day members ef 
the Republican or "Union" party. 

We could till volumes with similar extracts, 
but the foregoing must suffice. 

Still, the 0ccasion had not ripened. The 
spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. — 
The "strong government" party could not get 
all the machinery of our Government into their 
hands. They came very near it under the 
Elder Adams, and attempted to circumscribe 
the elective franchise, or rather to mould it 
more to their purposes, by the Alien law, and 
to hush up the Democratic sentiment of the 
country, by the Sedition law, but tne spirit of 
the people was too strong, and the effort was 
abandoned. 

TREASON OF THE FEDERAL CLERGY. 

The next effort was to weaken this Govern- 
ment in its struggles with Great Britain in 
1812-15, to the cud that the world might see 
Democracy in America was a failure, and then 
would come the millenium of the "strong gov- 
ernment." Then, as ever since, many of the 
leading clergy were with Ihem. The Rev. Mr. 
Gardner preached an anti-war sermon in 
Trinity Church, Boston, (1814) in which he 
&aid: 

■•The Union has been long since virtually dissolved, and 
it is full time that this part of the Cniteu States should 
take care of itself." 

The Rev. Dr. Parish said: 

"How will the supporters o f this anti-Christian war en- 
dure the sentence — endure their own reflection — endure 
the fire that forever burns — the worm which never dies — 
the hi'zannas of heaven, while the smoke of their tor- 
njents ascends forever and ever." 

Said the Rev. David Osgood: 

"Each man who volunteers his services in such a cause, 
or loans his money for its support, or by his conversation, 
his writings, or in any other mode of influence, encour- 
ages its prosecution, that man is an accomplice in the 
wickedness, loads his conscience with'the blackest crimes, 
brings the guilt of blood upon bis soul, and in the sight of 
God and His law is a murderer." 

The Olive Branch, a work ©f that day, said: 

"To sum up the whole, Massachusetts was energetic, 
bold, firm, daring and decisive in a contest with the Gen- 
eral Government, she would not abate an inch. She dared 
it to the conflict. She seized it by the throat and deter- 
mined to strangle it." 

TREASON OF THE FEDERAL PRESS. 

The Boston Gazette, the New England or- 
gan of the Federalists, said: 

"Any Federalist who lends money to the Government, 
mu,-t go and shake hands with James Madison, and claim 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



fellowship with Felix Grundy. Let him no more call him- 
Belf a F<-'deraIist, and friend to his countrj'! He will be 
called by others infamous." 

SUPPUKT OF THE GOVERNMENT "nErROBATED." 

lu the Boston Centinel, Feb. 14, 1817, -we 
find a long Federal address, Tvhieh was written 
(probably by Josiaii Quingy) in reply to a 
Democratic Address of a previous date, and in 
answering a certain paragraph, this Federal 
Address proceeds to declare 

"There is, however, one fei«tiiro in tliis address at once 
so unprincipled, and bo mischievous that it seems impossi- 
bls for any man of the most common himesty or patriot- 
ism to notice it without reprobation. We allude to that 
part of it in which Massachusetts is called upon to re- 
Knquish her opposition to the General Government.- * * 
Fellow citizens, (cotinues the Federal Address) in what- 
ever point of view we consider this appeal (that is to de- 
sist in opposition to the General Government) whether as 
intended to intluence the electors in Massachusetts, or as 
a faithful representation of the principles -which govern 
our rulers, in the General Government, nothing can be 
-more shameless or degrading!" 

In 1817, the Boston CentineVs main objec- 
tion to General Dearborn, Democratic candi- 
date for Governor of Massachusets was, that 
he was " a friend of Thomas Jefferson." — 
Boston Centind, March 8, 1817. 

THE FIRST PROPOSITION IN CONGRESS TO DIS- 
SOLVE THE UNION. 

Josiah Quincy, who was then on the Fed- 
eral ticket for State Senator, and has never 
changed his politics to the present hour, but 
has of late been an ardent "Republican," 
made a speech in Congress, on the 14th of 
January, 1311, in which he declared that the 
purchase of Louisiana and admission of the 
State into the Union, would be a 

" Virtual dissolution of tho bonds of the Union * * 
rendering it the right of all. as it would become the duty 
of some, to prepare definitely for separation— amicably , 
if they might— /braftfi/ if they must." — Hildreth's His- 
tory U. S., ni. i,p. 226. 

And to be more explicit Mr. Quincy reduced 
his threat to writing and sent it to the Clerk, 
whereupon Mr. Poindkxter rose to his feet 
and declared it as the 

" First time that on this floor a threat had been made to 
dissolve the Union," 

WHAT RHODE ISLAND DID FOR THE WAR. 

"Rhode Island did actually order out and put upon 
duty an army of fifteen men, after having duly consulted 
on the matter with the 'Council of War' — Gov. MiRiix 
and CiiRiSTOPHKR Fuwler, Eiq. It was not, however, 
thought, (in the language of the Governor) that this 
guard was 'capable of resi-sting an invading foe of any 
considerable magnitude.' " — Seehis Message, vol. 14, p. 109. 
jSrHes' Iiegister,lSlb,vol. S, p. 39. 

QUALIFICATIONS AND DISQUALIFICATIONS FOR 
MEMBERS OF MASS. LEGISLATURE. 

During the last AVar with Great Britain, 
Massachusetts took the following action: 

Ist. That a member of that body was not disqualijied 
to hold his so.atou account of having taken an oath not to 
ieararms, <fc., ag.iinst the enemy! 

2d. The Uouse of Representatives resolved that a Rev- 
erned member of this body was disquahfied to hold his 
seat therein, because he had been appointed a Chaplain in 



the Armv of the United States." — NiUs' Register, 1S15, 
vol. %,p'. 13. 

A NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERACY'. 

On the 8th of October, 1814, a committee of 
the Massachusetts Legislature submitted a re- 
port by Mr. Otis, chairman, in favor of calling 
a convention of the New England States with 
the end and object of forming a New England 
Coufed«racy. This measure passed and the 
Hartford Convention was its progney. 

THE DEMOCRATS PROTEST. 

On the 15th of the sair.e month a protest was 
entered by thirteen Senators and by seventy- 
five members against this treason andinsipient 
•ecession. 

"Ambition has destrcyed every other Republic on earth," 

say the Senate protestants. The House pro- 
test concludes as follows: 

" The reasoning of the report is supported by the alarm- 
ing assumption that the Constitution has failed in its 
objects, and tho people of Massachusetts are absolved in 
their allegiance, and adopt another. In debate it has 
been reiterated that the Constitution is no longer to be re- 
spected [just what is reiterated through the redical press 
and speeches to-day | and the resolution is not to be dep- 
recated. The bond of our political union is thus attempt- 
ed to be severed, and in a state of war and common danger, 
we are advised to the mad experiment of abandoning the 
combined energies of the nation might afford, for the self- 
ish enjoyment of our present, though partial resources. — 
The resolutions of the Legislature, it is to be feared, will 
be viewed by other States as productive of this conse- 
iiuence, that Massachusetts shall govern the Administra- 
tion, or the Government shall not be administered in 
Massachusetts. [Precisely what South Carolina done in 
1S32 and ISol.] Jealousy and contention will ensue. — 
The Constitution, hitherto respected as the character of 
national liberty and consecrated as tho ark of our political 
i^Aieiy, wWlhe violated and destroyed, and in civil dissen- 
tious and convulsions, our independence will be annihilat- 
ed, our country reduced to the condition of vanquished 
and tributary colonies, to a haughty and implacable for- 
eign foe. — [Levi Lincoln, jr,, and seventy-five others." 
-^lAHles Register, vol. 7, p. 155. 

MASSACHUSETIS "sET UP" FOR HERSELF. 

The same legislature that passed these re- 
solves voted to raise an armj' for "state de- 
fence" of 10,000 strong, &c., and actually made 
all the necessary prepai'ations to go out of the 
Union, as much so as South Carolina did in 
1861, except the going. Massachusetts also 
appointed a "Boaixl of War," and was thus 
preparing to become an independent nation. — 
A'iles'' Bagistcr, vol. 7, p. 147. 

GOV. STRONG ON THE BOARD OF WAR. 

In Gov. Strong's message to the legislature, 
dated the 16th of January, 1816, he refers to 
the resolve of the year previous, which required 
the "Board of War" to close accounts "of this 
commonwealth with the United States, and file 
the same in the Secretary's office," which was 
done.— A'i7es' Register, v. 9, p. 416. 

FEDERALS TOAST THE UARTFOKD CONVENTION 

At a dinner in honor of Washington's birth- 
day, in Philadelphia, Feb. 18, 1815, the follow- 
ing toast was drank: 

"The Hartford Convention, the dignified apostles of the 
true political faith ." —Niks Register, 'v. 8, p. 14. ' 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



29 



NEW JER3KY SPURNS THE TREASON. 

The Legislature of New Jersey rejected the 
Federal Hartford Convention propositions as 

"tho master principle * * * to reJiice within a nar- 
row sphere the power anil influence of the General Gov- 
ernment. * * * Xhe obvious tei.ilency also i3 to throw 
among the states of the Union the apple of discord * * 
anJ nurture the seeds of dissention and disunion, * * * 
bv \-\ersons }vofr:ssing them to promote the general good," 
iic. 

THE FEDERALS AGITATE SLAVERY. 

• 

This "Federal Divine"' Hartford Convention 
also lugged in the slavery question, and sought 
to create prejudice in its favor hy the agitation 
oi that subject — ^just as the radicals do at the 
present day. \_See report of Committee of Pa. 
Legislature, April, 1815.] 

NEW YORK ON FEDERAL DISUNION. 

Mr. Edwards, Chairman of the Committee 
in the Legislature of Now York, harshly yet 
justly excoriated the "treason of Massachu- 
setts" and charged on the Federals of thatand 
other states that 

'■in the opinion of your comniittco (they mean) to make 
peace with the eneniy, and forcldly to separate themselves 
from the Union."' 

MASSACHUSETTS TRIES TO KICK LOUISIANA 
OUT OF THE UNION. 

In the Massachusetts Legislature, June 4, 
1813, JosxAii QuiNCY submitted a lengthy re- 
port, as Chairman of the committee raised for 
that purpose, against permitting Louisiana to 
remain in the Union, and closed with a series 
of resolutions, which were adopted by the Fed- 
eral majority, from which we copy the 3d, 

" Etsolted, That the act passed the Stii day of April, 
1S12, entitled " an act for the admission of the State of 
Louisiana into the Union, and to extend the Laws of the 
United States to said State," is a violation of the constitu- 
tion of the United States; and that the Senators of this 
State in Congres?, be instructed, and the representatives 
thereof requested, to use their utmost endeavors to obtain 
a repeal oi the same." — \_NiUs' lie^iskt; vol. 4, p. 287. 

TO REJOICE OYER OUR VICTORIES UNBECOM- 
ING A RELIGIOUS AND MORAL PEOPLE. 

On the 15th of the stime month there was a 
proposition before the same legislature for a 
vote of thanks to James Lawrence, com- 
mander of the United States ship Hornet, and 
the officers and crew of that ship, for their 
gallantry and bravery in the destruction of the 
British ship reucock — that as similar resolu- 
tions have been passed " on similar occasions" 
for "like service" "have given great discon- 
tent to many of the good people of this com- 
mouTvealth," &c., therefore 

"JResohcd, As the sense of the Senate of Ma.ssachu- 
setts, that in a war like the present, waged wi thout justi- 
fiable cause, and prosecuted in a manner which indicates 
that conquest and ambition ore its real motives, it is not 
itcoming a moral and religious people to express any ap- 
probation of military or naval exploits!:" [See Ailes 
Jtirf titer, V. -i, p. 2ST. 

The party that passed the foregoing resolu- 
tion was called Federal then. Federal Republi- 



can in 1824; ^Yhig in 183.3; RcpuLlicaji in 
1854; Union (?) in 1863! An unenviable con- 
sanguinity. 



CHAPTER IV. 

DISJ^■IO^■ OF EARLY GROWTH. 

ilarly Clamors for a Northern Confederacy. ..the Pelham 
Publication. ..Crusade Against Slavery in 1796. ..Its 
Baseness and Untruthfulness exhibited by Carey, in 
ISIJ:... The Federal Argument to show that Dissolution 
was close at liand... Early Caricatures of the Xorth to 
stimulate Sectional Hatred. ..Falsity of the Agitators' 
statements. ..Comparison of Northern and Southern 
support of Government. ..The odious comparisons con- 
tinued. ..Republican papers and tho President's Message 
...Section arrayed against Section. 

CLAMORS FOR A NOHTHKRN CONFEDERACY. 

To Show that the work of dissolution began, 
and the cry of a "Northern Confederacy" 
raised even under the Administration of 
Wa-siiington, we copy the following from Mr. 
Carey's Olive Branch, published in 1814, and 
the extracts he brings forward from a treason- 
able secession work of that day, to prove his 
statements, to which woi'k we refer the reader, 
pages 270-1-2-3. &c. 

One fact will strike the reader with peculiar 
unction, at first sight — to-wit: the same spe- 
cies of appeal to local prejudices, and against 
slavery that has for years stirred up the foun- 
tains of our whole society to its dregs. It will 
prove that the present generation of Abolition 
agitators come honestly by their hatred ot the 
South — that they inherited it from the old 
Federals, and even now, while the result of 
this factious spirit has reached, and now sits on 
the throne of power, the leading orators, 
presses and pulpits in that interest, breathe 
out their scoffs, their jeers and their hatred of 
the Constitution, the only bond of our Union. 
All who maintain that the "Union as it was 
and the Constitution as it is" should be res- 
pected by the powers that be, are stigmatized 
as "traitors." "copperheads." &c. So far as 
the writer hereof is concerned, he is willing to 
send down to remote posterity bis honest pur- 
pose to sustain the Constitution, as the only 
means of saving the Union, to be read in future 
history as we now read the following to-day: 

THE PELIIA.M CONSPIRACY. 

"A Northern Confederacy has been the object for annm- 
ber of years . They (New England) have repeatedly advo- 
cated in public prints a seperation of the states, on ac- 
count of a pretended discordance of views and interests of 
the iliftcrent sections. 

"This project of separation was formed shortly after the 
adoption of the Federal Constitution. Whether it was 
ventured before the public earlier than 171*0, I know not. 
But of its promulgation in that year, there is the most in- 
dubitable evidence. A most elaborate set of papers under 
the signature of Pelham, was then published in the city 
ot Hartford, in Connecticut, the joint production of men 
of the first talents and influence in the state. Theyap- 
pear in the Connecticut Coward, published by Hi'DSON & 
Goodwin, two eminent printers, wf, I believe, considerable 
revolutionary standing. There were then none of the 
long catilogue of grievances, which since that period have 
been fabricated to justify , the recent attempts to dissolve 



30 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



the Union. General Washjngtox was Piesident; Jonx 
Adams, an Eastern citizen, Vice President. Tliere was no 
French influence — no Virginia dynasty — no embargo — no 
intercourse — no terrapin policy — no Democratic mad- 
ness — no war. In fine, every feature in the affairs of the 
country was precisely according to their fondest wishes. 

"To sow discord, jealousy and hostility between the 
different sectiops of the Union, was the first and grand 
step in their career, in order to accomplish the favorite 
object of a separation of the states. 

" In fact, without this efficient 1nstrum«it, all their 
efforts would have been utterly unavailing. It would 
have been impossible had the honest yeomanry of the 
Eastern States continued to regard their Southern fellow 
citizens as friends and brethren, having one common in- 
terest in the promotion of the genoral welfire, to make 
them instriiments in the hands of those who intended to 
employ them to operate the unholy work of destroying 
the noble, the august, the splendid fabric of our Union, 
and unparalleled form of government. 

" For eighteen years, therefore, the most unceasing en- 
deavors have been used to poison the minds of the people 
of the Eastern States towards, and to alienate them from, 
their fellow citizens of the Southern States. The people 
of the latter section have been portrayed as demons in- 
carnate, destitute of all the good qualities that dignify 
or adorn human nature — that acquire esteem or regard — 
that entitle to respect and veneration. Nothing can ex- 
ceed the virulence of these caricatures, some of which 
would have suited the ferocious inhabitants of New Zea- 
land, rather than a civilized or polished nation. To illus- 
trate and remove all doubt on this subject, I subjoin an 
extract from Pelham's Eseaya, No. 1." 

THE NEGRO AS A PRETEXT. 

"Negroes are in all respects except in regard to life and 
death, the cattle of the citizens of the Southern States. 
If they were good for food the])robability is that even the 
power of destroying their lives would be enjoyed by their 
owners as frilly as it is over the lives of their cattle. It 
cannot be that their laws prohibit their owners from kill- 
ing their slaves, because those slaves are human beings, or 
because it is a moral evil to destroy them. If that were 
the case how can they justily their being treated in all 
other respects like hruics? for it is in this point of view 
alone that t 'groes in the Southern States are considered 
in fact a^Hifferent from cattle. They are bought and sold. 
They are fed or kept hungry. They are clothed or re- 
duced to nakedness. They are beaten, turned out to the 
fury of the elements, and torn from their dearest connect- 
ions, with as little remorse as if they were heasts of the 
field." 

On tlie above, Mr. Carey remarked in 1814: 

" Never was there a more infamous or unfounded char- 
icature than this. Never one more disgraceful to its au- 
thor. It may not be amiss to state, and it greatly en- 
hances the turpitude of the writer, that at the period when 
it was written, there were many slaves in Connecticut, 
■who were sulject to all the dis.advantagos that attended 
the Southern slaves . " 

Its vile cliaracter is further greatly aggra- 
vated by the consideration that a large portion 
of these very negroes and their ancestors had 
been purchased and sent from their homes, and 
families, by citizens of the Eastern States, 
•who were actually, at that moment, and long 
afterwards, cngagcdin the slave trade. I add a 
few more extracts from Peliiam: 

NO ONE BUT THE "THOROUGHLY DEMOCRAT- 
IC " C.\N HESITATE. 

"We have reached a critical period in our political ex- 
istence. The question must soon be decided whether we 
will continue a nation at the expense even of our Union, 
or sink with the present wars of difficulty with confusion 
and slavery. JIany advantages were supposed to ho se- 
cured, and many evils avoided, by an union of the States. 
I shall not deny tliat the supposition was well founded, 
but at the time these advantages, and these evils were 
magnifi -d to a far greater size than cither would be if 
the question was at this moment to be settled. 



" The N(7rthern .states can subsist as a nation — a repub- 
lic, witbout any connection with the Southern. It cannot 
be contested that if the Southern States were possessed of 
tlie same political ideas, our Union would be more close 
than separation, but when it becomes a serious question 
whether we shall give up our government or part with 
the States south of the Potomac, no man Aorth of that 
river, whose heart is not thoroughly Democratic, can hesi- 
tate what decision to make. 

"I shall, in the future papers, consider some of the 
great events, whicli will lead to a sejmration of the United 
States — show the importance of retaining their present 
Constitution, even at the expense of a separation — endea- 
vor to prove the impossibility of a Union for any long pe- 
riod in future, both from the moral and politirol habits of 
the citizens of the Soufcern States, and finally examine 
carefully to see whether we have not already approached 
to tlio era when they must he divided." 

And, Mr. Carey comments: 

"It is impossible for a man of intelligence and candor 
to read these extracts without feeling a decided convic- 
tion, that the w-riter and his friends were determined to 
use all their endeavors to dissolve the Union, and endan- 
ger civil war and its horrors, in order to pronnjte their 
sectional views. This affords a complete clue to all the 
seditious proceedings that have occurred since that pe- 
riod. [Yea, and up to the present time — 18(33.] The in- 
creasing efforts to excite the public mind [continued ever 
since, in the slavery agitation] to Uiat feverish state of 
discord, jealousy and exasperation, which was necessary 
to prepare it for consummation. The parties interested 
would, on astage of a sep.arate confederacy, ijcrform the 
liveliest parts of kings and princes. Generals and Gener- 
alissimos, whereas on the grand scope of a general Union, 
embracing all the states, they are obliged to sustain char- 
acters of perhaps a second or third rate. Better to rule in 
hell than obey in heaven." 

" The unholy spirit that inspired the writer of this dis- 
solution sentiment, has been Irom that hour to the present, 
incessantly employed to excite hostility between the dif- 
ferent sections of the Union. [And we may add, has kept 
it up without abatement to this hour.] To such horrible 
lengths has this spirit been carried, that many paragraphs 
have occasionly appeared in the Boston papers, intended 
and well calculated to excite the negres of the Southern 
States to rise and massacre their masters. This will un- 
doubtedly appear incredible to the reader. Itis neverthe- 
less sacredly true. It is a species of turpitude and base- 
ness of which the world has produced few examples. 

" Thus, some progress was made, but it was inconsider- 
able, while the yeomanry of the Eastern States were en- 
riched by a beneficial commerce with the Southern, they 
did not feel disposed to quarrel with them, for their sup- 
posed want of a due degree of piety or morality. 

THE press aided DISSOLUTION. 

"A deeper game was requisite to be played, or all the 
pains taken so far would have been wholly fruitless, and 
this was seduously undertaken . The Press literally groan- 
ed with efforts [as it has in our day] to prove five points 
wholly destitute of foundation; 

"1st. That the Eastern States were supereminently 
commercial. 

"2d. That the States south of the Susquehanna were 
wholly agricultural. 

"3d. That there is a natural and inevitable hostility 
between commercial and agricultural States. 

"4th. That this hostility has uniformly pervaded the 
whole Southern section of the Union; and 

" That all the measures of Congress were dictated by 
this hostility, and were actually intended to ruin the com- 
mercial, meaning the Eastern States. 

"I do not assert that these miserable — tliese contempt- 
ible — tlfose deceptions positions — were ever laid down in 
regular form as theses to argue upon ; but 1 do aver that 
they formed th") basis of three-fourths of all the essays, 
paragraphs, squibs and croakers that have appeared in the 
Boston papers against the administration for many years 
past. "The Road to Ruin," ascribed to John Lowell, 
now before me, is remarkable for its virulence, its accri- 
mony, its intemperence, and for the talent of the writer, 
lie undoubtedly places his subject in the strongest point 
of light possible for such a subject. But if you extract 
from his essays the assumption of these positions, all the 
rest is a mere ca%nd mortmim — all "sad and funny." — 
On these topics, the charges are many in endless succes- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



sr 



sioB. The same observation will ai>[)ly, iinil with equal 
force to hundreds and thousands of essays and paragiajilis 
within the same topic. 

"Never was the yutta non vi, scd sanpe, cndenclo more 
completely verified. These positions, however absurd, 
however evtravagant, howevfr ridiculous they appear in 
their naked form, hive, by dint of incessant repetition 
made such an impression upon the minds of a lar^je portion 
of the people of Uie Kaslern States, that they are as 
thoroughly convinced of their truth, as of any problem in 
Euclid." 

ABOLITION CIIAEIOATURES. 

To show that the charicaturps by our North- 
ern politicians, calculated to "belittle and in- 
flame the South, were not without their ances- 
tral examples, we copy from the above named 
work, p. 274: 

"The Rev.JfiDEDiAH Morse has in some degree devoted his 
geography to, and disjiraced it by, the perpetuation of this 
vile prpjudice. Almost every page that represents /ifsojora 
section of the Union is highly encomiastic. He colors with 
the flattering tints of a partial and enamored friend, but 
when once he passes the Susquehannah, what a hideous 
reverse. Almost everything is there a frightful charitature. 
Society is at a low and meloncholy ebb, and all the sombre 
tints are employed in the description in order to elevate 
by the contrast, his fivorite elysium, the Eastern States. 
He dips his pen in gall, when he has to portray the man- 
ners, or habits, or religion of Virgini.a orJIaryland, either 
of the Carolinas or Georgia, or the Western country." 

To the student of forty years ago the above 
might be pronounced a frightful and just criti- 
cism on the old Morse Geography. How per- 
fectly in consonance with the maps of the 
Union that were circulated in 1856, one half 
printed black, to caricature the people of that 
section, and to breed hostile rejoinders. How 
consistent, also, much that we have quoted in 
the foregoing voluminous extracts, stand forth 
as the same species of beligerant menace, and 
typical of desire for disunioK, were the carry- 
ing of flags and banners in 1856, with only fif- 
teen stars thereon. Further comment on this 
point is unnecessary. 

SECTIONAL PREJUDICES AROUSED. 

It will be seen by the foregoing, that as of 
late, the Eastern states (the Federal, Republi- 
can, Abolition portions thereof) sought early 
to create prejudice and disunion — not on ac- 
count of any adequate existing fact, but merely 
to array section against section, in order to 
stimulate hatred and discord, and accelerate 
their darling object — dissolution. As we have 
seen, the disunionists of the Eastern states 
were continually harping on their exclusive 
commercial interests — that they paid more than 
the Southern states for the support of Govern- 
ment, &c. As the Government was supported 
by revenue derived from customs, and to show 
how ill founded these early complaints were, 
and that disunion was the only motive that put 
them forth, we exhibit the following. Mr. 
Carey, in 1814, said: 

"The Southern section of the Union, which has been so 
cruelly, so wickedly, so unjustly villified and calumniated 
for its hostility to commerce, is actually more interested in 
its preservation than the Eastern states, in the proportion 
of Jive to Ihreel" 

FALSITY OF THE STATEMENTS EXHIBITED. 

The writer then goes on to show that at that 



date (1813) the city of Baltimore had as much 
tonnage afloat as the whole New England states, 
being: 

New England, tons, 108,000' 

Baltimore, tons 103,000 

The exports from the Southern states from 
1791 to 1813, according to Mr Noukse's report 
to Congress, shows that the Southern states 
exported nearly double that of the Xew Eng- 
land states: 

Southern states, exports 22 years S'i]4,o'JS..000 

N«w England states, exports 2.3 years. 299,10t100O ■ 

Diiferenoe, 8215,401, 000. 

HOW THE NORTH AND SOOTH SUPrORT THE 
GOVERNMENT. 

In fact. Virginia, Maryland, and the District 
of Columbia, exported more than the whole 
Eastern States. Mr. Nourse, Register of the 
Treasury, prepared a table, which he reported 
10 Congress, showing the amount of duties paid 
by each State from 1791 to 1812, inclusive, 
from which it appears that the 

Southern, or slave States, paid duties, ?.55,660,000 

New England States paid duties, 57,0.3o,000 

THE ODIOUS COMPARISONS CONTINUED. 

Since that time, as we have shown elsewhere 
in this work, the Southern States have paid 
immensely more duties than a\l the Northern 
or free States combined. We only allude to 
these facts to show that the complaints of the 
Northern Abolitionists were unfounded and 
frivalous, and only put forth as one of the "^ir- 
ritations" mentioned by Washington ir, his 
Farewell Address, to "widen the breach," and 
consummate dissolution. Indeed, this system 
of unjust comparisons has been continued by 
that class of politicians from the earliest days 
to the present. Even the President's late 
Message to Congress, though not ostensibly of 
this order of complaints, nevertheless, so pre- 
sented the figures relative to the postal affairs, 
as to enable his partizans to renew the old "ir- 
ritation,'' which they have generally improved. 
We hare one instance before us. It is from 
the Milwaukee Sentinel of December 12, 1863: 

" WHAT IT COST ME NOETH TO C.iRRY THE MAILS FOR THE 
SLAVE STATES. 

"There is one statement contained in the President's 
Message so significant that it is worthy of brief comment. 
Speaking of the condition of the Post OiBce Deitartment, 
he says : 

" 'iiuring the past fiscal year the financial condition of 
the Post Oftice Department has been of increasing pros- 
1/erity, and I am gratified in being able to state the re- 
ceipts at the postal revenue have nearly equalled the en- 
tire expenditures, the latter amounting to $ll,oM,li00,84 
and the former to 811,160,169,08, leaving a deficiency of 
§160,417,2.5. In the year immediately prcceediug the re- 
bellion the deficiency amounted to $5, 656, 711.5,49, the post- 
al receipts of that year being $2,645,722.19 less than those 
of 1863. The decrease since 1S60 in the annual amount 
of transportation has been only about 25 per cent.; but 
the annual expenditure on account of the same has been 
reduced 35 per cent. It is manifest, that the Post Office 
Department may become self-sustaining in a few years, 
even with the restoration of the whole service.' " 

" This quite clearly demonstrates what it has cost the 
/ree i\'ffr<7t to carry the mails for the slavehold I nr/ South. 
Before the rebellion, when mail arrangements were unin- 



32 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



ternipti'fi t!irou<;hout the South, the deficiency in the 
Department's liminces was $o,65G,"05,49, wherea.-, now, 
wlion tlie mail ficilities of tlie Slave States have been 
withdrawn, tlie Department pays its expenses into $150,- 
417,25 ; or, in other words, it has cost the North annually 
five and a half million dollars to carry the mails for the 
neffroe-hreedinff InrtU of the Snalli. There may be many 
reasons and incentives that will induce men to sigh for 
the '• Union as it ivas," but tlio alwvo exhibit is not one 
of them." 

Now, compare this with its "twin sisters" 
of fifty years ngo, and see if you cannot dis- 
cover a marked family resemblance — particu- 
larly the sneer at the ^^Union as itivas.'!^^ — 
We have nothing to do with the merits of the 
arithmetical statements, which have no doubt 
been influenced greatly by the fact that the 
army has vastly accelerated correspondence, 
and military operations require vast mail fa- 
cilities, and consequently enhanced receipts, 
but it is the animus of such articles— their 
invidious comparisons, that "tend to alienate 
one section from the other," and, as Jefferson 
said, "to make Union impossible." 



CHAPTER V. 

THE GREAT NEW ENGLAND CONSPIKACY. 

New England Money King.s endeavor to Bankrupt the 
Government. ..Testimony of » Cotemporary...The Clergy 
in the Conspiracy ...Consequence of the Conspiracy. ..De- 
preciationof Bank andGoverument Stocks. ..Mr. Cauey's 
Statement. ..The Secret I'ederal Leagues. ..Mouied men 
banded against the Government... Reign of Terror. ..Cit- 
izens dare not subscribe for Government Loan openly... 
Threats and Intimidations by the I'eder.ils... Treason of 
the Federals in buying and selling English Bills. ..The 
Sedition Law. ..Its object to crush out Free Discussion... 
Difference between Madison and Ltmcolx... Leading Fed- 
erals Gazetted. ..Object of the Sedition Law. .."We, the 
Government, in 1798. ..Damn the Government in 1S14... 
The Pious Rev. Federals curse tlie Government. ..Views 
of Jeffekson and Webster, &c. 

CONSPIRACY OF NEW ENGLAND TO BANKRUPT 
THE GOVEENMENT. 

The New England money kings knowing that 
money furnished the "sinews of war." and 
having control of a great share of the mone- 
tary interests of the country, during the last 
war with England, entered into a conspiracy 
to break down the credit of the Government, 
and to discredit Government bills. They were 
continually crying peace, yet doing all they 
could to prevent peace, well knowing that a 
prolongation of hostilities would only secure to 
them dissolution. 

The Government under Kr. Madison, need- 
ed money to prosecute tl. f war, and isused 
eight per cent, bonds for luat purpose. No 
sooner were those bonds in Market than New 
England money sharks set up a howl that they 
were worthless, never could be redeemed, &c. 
Elsewhere in this work, will be found numer- 
ous extracts, showing the vile purposes to de- 



feat the obtaining money by the Government, 
but we will produce a few facts in this connec- 
tion, as more clearly establishing the truth of 
that wicked conspiracy in New England, to 
break down the Government, in the darkest 
hour of its peril, and to show tVhat peculiar 
claim that section has now to cry traitor to all 
those who believe in the "Union as it was and 
the Constitution as it is." We quote from the 
Olive Branchy p. 303: 

"In consefjuence, every possible exertion was made.par- 
ticularly in Boston, to deter the citizens from subscribing 
to the loans, in order to disable the Government from car- 
rying on the war, and of course to compel it to make 
poace. Associations were entered into, in the most solemn 
and public manner for this purpos6,and those who could not 
be induced by mild means, were deterred by denuncia- 
tions. A folio volume might be tilled with the lucu- 
brations that appeared on this subject. 

"Tlio pulpit, as usual, in Boston, afforded its utmost aid 
to the press, to insure success. Those who subscribed 
were in direct terms declared participators, in and access- 
ories to, all the Murdero, as they were termed, that might 
take place in the nnholy, unrighteous, wicked, abomnia- 
ble, and accursed war." \Se£ &r7non by Jiev. Osgood 
and others, elsewhere. '\ 

The consequence of these efforts was soon 
plainly visible. The currency of various banks 
out of New England began to depreciate, be- 
cause they were not in the plot. The Boston 
Price Current makes the following extract 
from the United Slates Gazette, of Feb. 7, 

1815: 

Below par. 

All New York Banks 1>J to 20 p. c. 

Hudson Bank 20 

Orange Bank 24 

I'hilailelphia City Banks 'M 

Treasuiy Notes 24 to 2.t 

United States six per cents 4u 

Says Mr. Carey, in speaking of this con- 
spiracy: 

"The success of the Eastern States was considerable. 
Few men have the courage to stem the tide of popular de- 
lusion, when it sets iu very strong. There M'ere some, 
howi.'ver, who subscribed (to the Government loan) open- 
ly, in defiance of denunciations and threats. Others, of 
less fine texture, loaned their money (to the Government) 
by stealth, and as clandestinely as if it wete treasonable. 
What, alasl must be the awful state of society wheu a free 
citizen is afraid of lending his money publicly to support 
the government that protects him." 

In support of this damaging accusation, we 
extract the following paragraph from a work 
by JouN Lowell, a most inveterate Federal, 
who charged the "Federal secret Leagues" 
(have we not their progeny iu "Union secret 
Leagues"?) with violating their secret pledges, 
no^ to loan money to the Government. In de- 
nouncing the violation of the "professions and 
promises" of his secret League associates, he 
exposes their vile conspiracy. He says: 

"Money is such a drug (the surest sign of 
the /o?'TOer prosperity and present insecurity of 
trade) that men, against their consciences, 
their honor, their duty, their j^rofessions and 



SCr.APS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



33 



PROMISES, arc willing to lend it secret!)/, 
to support the very measures [that is, the war, ) 
which are both intended and calculated for 
their ruin." 

Thus, the men, who to get rid of their 
"drug" would lend it secretly (they dared not 
openly) to the Government, had violated the 
secret idedges and promises they had made in 
the secret club rooms of their secret Leagues. 

Puritanital superstition was appealed to, to 
prevent loans to the Government. Just pre- 
vious to the Fast day in Boston, while the 
Government was advertising for loans, the 
following paragraph appeared in the Boston 
Federal papers: 

"Let no man who wishes to continue the 
war by active measures, by voting or lending 
money, dare to prostrate himself at the altar 
on the Fast day, for tbey are actually is much 
partakers in the w,ar, as the soldier who thrusts 
his bayonet, and the judgment of God will 
await them!!'' 

"Will Federalists subscribe to the loan? 
Will they lend money to our national rulers? 
It is impossible! First, because of the prin- 
cipal, and secondly, of principal and interest. 
If they lend money now, they make themselves 
parties to the violations of the Constitution, 
the cruelly oppressive measures in relation to 
commerce, and to all the crimes which have 
occurred in the field and in the Cabinet. To 
what purpose have Federalists exerted them- 
selves to show the wickedness of this war — to 
rouse the public sentiment against it, and to 
show the authors of it not only to be unworthy 
of public coulideuce, but highly criminal, if 
now they contribute the sums of money ivith- 
out which these rulers must be compelled to 
stop.'^ 

"By the very ruinous cause pointed out by. 
Gov. Stroxg, that is by icitholding all vol- 
untary aid, in prosecuting the war, and man- 
fully expressing our opinion r.s to its injustice 
and ruinous tendency, v:e. have arrested its 
progress, and driven back its authors to aban- 
don their w'farious schemes, and to look anx- 
iously for peace. * * But some say will 
you let the country become bankrupt ? No, 
the country will never become bankrupt, but 
piray do not prevtnt their trustees becoming bank- 
rupt ! Do not prevent them from becoming 
odious to the public, ami replaced by better 
men. Any Fedei-alist who lends his money to 
government, must go and shake hands with 
James M.\risON and claim fellowship with 
Felix Gri'nby. Let him no more call him- 
self a Federalist, and friend to his country. — 
He will be called by others, infamous. But, 
secondly. Federalists will not lend money, be- 
cause they will never get it again. Now, 
where and when are the Government to get 
money to pay interest, and who can tell whether 
future members of Congress may think the debt 
contracted under such circumstances, and by 



men who lend money to help out measures 
what they have loudly and constantly con- 
demned, ought to be paid ? On the whole, 
then, there are two very strong reasons, why 
Federalists will not lend money ; first, because 
it would be an abandonment of political 
and personal principles, and secondly, because 
it is pretty certain they will never be paid 
again. — Boston Gazette, April 14, 1814. 

"Our merchants constitute an honorable, 
high-minded, independent and intelligent class 
of citizens. [That faction always boasted of 
their intelligence.] They feel the oppression, 
injury and mockery, with which they are treat- 
ed by the government. They will lend them 
money to retrace their steps, but none to perse- 
vere in their present course. Let every high- 
u-ayman find his oicn pistols.'^ — Boston Ga- 
zette. 

"We have only room this evening to say that 
we trust no true friend to his country ivill be 
found among the subscribers to the Gallatin 
loan.''' — New York Evening Post. 

"No peace will ever be made till the people 
say there shall be no war. If the rich men 
continue to furnish money, war will continue 
till the mountains are melted with blood; till 
every field in America is white with the bones 
of the people." — Discourse at Byfield, [Mass.) 
April 7, 1814, by Rev. Dr. Parish. 

"So unjust is this offensive war, in which 
our rulers have plunged us, in the sober con- 
sideration of millions, that they cannot con- 
scientiously approach the God of Armies for 
His blessing upon it." — Boston Centinel, Jan. 
13, 1313. 

"It is very grateful to find that the uni- 
versal sentiment is, that any man who lends 
his money to the Government, at the present 
time, will forfeit all claim to common honesty 
and common courtesy, among all true friends to 
the country. God forbid that any Federalist 
should ever hold up his head and pay Federal- 
ists for money lent to the present rulers, and 
Federalists can judge whether Democrats will 
tax their constituents to pay interest to Feder- 
alists." — Boston Gazette, April 14, 1814. 

The following announcement by Boston 
brokers show that the terror inspired by New 
England Federalists, through their secret 
Leagues, made it dangerous for any ©ne to sub- 
scribe to the Government loan openly. It is a 
sad commentary on the extreme terrorism 
raised by the monied and "intelligent" aris- 
tocracy of New England. 

PROOF OF TERRORISM IN BOSTON. 

Advertisement which appeared in the Boston 
Chronicle, April 14, 1814: 

"the XEW LOAN. 

" From the advice of several respected 
friends, we are irtduced to announce to the 



34 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



public that subscriptions to the new loan will 
be received by us, as agents, until the 25th 
inst, from individuals, or incorporated bodies, 
in sums of $500 and upwards. The subscrip- 
tions to conform to the regulations announced 
by the Secretary of the Treasury, dated the 
4th of April. Payments may be made in Bos- 
ton money, or in any other of the United 
States, the subscriber paying the customary 
rate of discount. Applications will be received 
from any persons who wish to receive their in- 
terest in Boston, by lettei's post paid, or by 
written (triplications^ from individuals in 
Boston, and the names of all subscribers shall 
beknou-n ONLY TO THE UNDERSIGNED 
according to the proposals of the Secretary of 
the Treasury- [For more particulars see his 
advertisement.] Each applicant must name the 
highest rate he will give, and if the loan is 
granted, lower than his proposal, it will of 
course be for his benefit, but on the other 
hand, if higher, he will lose the benefit of 
being a subscriber The certificates and all 
the business relating to it will be delivered free 
of charge. 

"GILBERT & DEAN, Brokers. 
"Exchange Coffee IIolse, Boston, Apiil 12." 

The following advertisement appeared in the 
Boston Gazette^ Aril 14, 1814: 

'•THE LOAN. 

"Subscriptions will be received through the 
the agency of the subscriber till the 25th inst., 
inclusive. 

"To avoid the inconvenience of personal ap- 
pearance to subscribe, applications in writing 
will be received from any part of the state. 
Each applicant will name the highest rate he 
will give, and if the loan shall be granted, 
lower than his proposal, he will reap the ben- 
efit, but if higher than his offer, he will have 
no share in it. The amount, rate and name of 
any applicant, shall, at his request, be knoivn 
only to the subscriber . All the business shall 
be transacted, and certificates delivered to the 
subscribers, without expense. 

"JESSE PUTNAM." 

Upon which the Boston Gazette of the same 
date remarked as follows: 

"How degraded must our Government be, 
even in their own eyes, when they resort to 
such tricks to obtain money, which a common 
Jew broker tvould be ashamed of! They must 
be well acquainted with the fabric of the men 
■who are to loan them money, when they, offer, 
that if they will have the goodness to do it, 
their names shall not he exposed to the luorld! 
* * * Perhaps monied men may be bribed 
by the high interest that is offered, but if they 
withhold their aid, and so force the Govern- 
ment into a peace, will not their capital be 
better employed, if engaged in trade? 

"On the whole, we think it no way to get 
out of war, to give money to the Government 
when the very thing that prevents them from 
carrying it on is the icant of money!'''' 



AID AND COMFORT TO THE ENEMY. 

We regret that we have not ample room for 
the statistics before us, all going to show that 
the Federals of Boston, not only combined to 
make a run on the banks of New York, Penn- 
sylvania, and the Southern states, and draw 
out the specie from their vaults, with a view to 
create a panic, and destroy the value of their 
currency, but they actually engaged openly in 
the smuggling trade, bought and sold British 
stocks and bills openly in State street — hoard- 
ed the specie drawn from loyal banks and sent 
it off to England, via. Canada, to purchase con- 
traband goods and bills. So bold had these 
traitors become in their treasonable and illicit 
conduct, that on the 16th of December, 1814, 
the following advertisement appeared in the 
Boston Daily Advertiser : 

" IIBITISU GOVERNME.NT BILLS FOU SALE. 

1 Bill for 800Z 

1 do 250i 

1 il) 203Z 

1,253{ 
"By CnA'S W. GKEEN, No. 14, India Wharf." 

This illicit intercourse with the public ene- 
my was strictly prohibited by Acts of Congress 
of 1781 and 1782. 

These bills were constantly bought and sold 
in the Boston market. The Federalists kept 
up a line of communication with Quebec, to 
which ijlace they exported specie, and from 
which place they brought back British bills, 
which they forwarded to England to purchase 
contraband goods with, and so universal was 
the sentiment of resistance to the General 
Government, in Massachusetts, and so little 
respect was there existing for the Union, that 
this illicit and treasonable intercourse was 
kept up with the public enemy, all through the 
war, and the sentiment adverse to it was too 
weak to risk complaint and exposure. The mo- 
ment our government gunboats were out of Bos- 
ton harbor, the Federalists would hoist their 
signal Blue Lights, and the British merchant- 
men that continually hovered about the Massa- 
chusetts coast, would come in, deliver their 
contraband cargo, receive specie and British 
bills in exchange, and return for another car- 
go. Says Mr. Carey: 

"There is no country in the world, but the 
United States, wherein such crimes could be 
perpetrated with impunity. Even by our mild- 
est of all mild constitutions, it is treason /" 

These acts were not only treasonable, but 
they were the essence of treason, itself, and if 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



35 



Mr. MadisO}^ and caused the arrest of the 
leaders in the guilt, and confined them in 
some Government Fort, and transported them 
"beyond the lines," he -would have been sus- 
tained by the just verdict of the nation. But 
he did not do it. He knew perhaps that all 
New England was so bent on the destruction 
of the Government, that it would make mat- 
ters worse to have aroused a worse hostility 
than he had already met with. 0. that Mr. 
Lincoln, for his sake, could have been justi- 
fied by a tithe of provocation and excuse in 
his arrest and banishment of Mr. Vallandig- 
HAM and others. But in his reply to the Ohio 
and Albany committees, he is bound to say 
that Mr. V. had committed no crime, that he 
was arrested and banished because it was feard 
he might do something criminal ! and Mr. 
Lincoln lays down the general rule of "disloy- 
alty," according to the reigning nomencla- 
ture, to be the use of a "but," or "and" or "if" 
or "saying nothina;," when one is standing by, 
listening to criticism on the conduct of gov- 
ernmental affairs. This is the diiference be- 
tween Mr. Madison and Mr. Lincoln in this 
regard. But to proceed. On all occasions, 
the Federalists, who were dissatisfied with our 
Government, sought to enlist sectional animos- 
ities. From a joint report to the two Houses 
of the Massachusetts Legislature, Feb. 18, 
1814, we extract the following : 

"They (the South) huve seen, at first an 
ill concealed, but at last an open and undis- 
guised jealousy ®f the wealth and power of 
the commercial states, operating in continued 
efforts to embarrass and destroy that com- 
merce, which is their life and support." 

appealing to sectional jealousies. 

This report sets up the propriety, justice 
and necessity of forcible resistance to the Gen- 
eral Government, and then adds: 

'•The question is not a question o( power or 
right, with this Lesislature, but of ti7ne or 
expediency.^' 

And the committee proceed: 

"There exists in all parts of this Common- 
wealth, a fear, and in many, a settled belief, 
that the cause of foreign and domestic policy, 
pursued by the government of the United 
States for several years past, has its founda- 
tion in a deliberate intention to impair, if 
not to destroy that free spirit and exercise of 
commerce, which, aided by the habits, manners 
and institutions of our ancestors, and the bless- 
ings of Divine Providence, have been the prin- 



cipal source of the freedom, wealth and gene- 
ral prosperity of this recently happy and flour- 
ishing people." &c. 

And continue the Committee : 

"The memorialists see in this deploriable de- 
scent from national greatness, a determination 
to harrass and annihilate that spirit of com- 
merce," &c. 

A WAIF from the haktford convention. 

And this key note of false alarm to the peo- 
ple was taken up by the Hartford Convention 
from the Address of which we copy: 

"Events may prove that the causes of our 
calamities are (/ccj^ and permanent. They may 
be found to proceed, not merely from the blind- 
ness of prejudice, pride of opinion, violence of 
party spirit, or the confusion of the times, but 
they may be traced to implacable combinations 
of individuals or states, to monopolize power 
and of[ice,and to trample without remorse upon 
the rights aud interests of the commtrcial sec- 
tions of the Vnion. 

"The Administr.ation, after a long perseve- 
rance in plans to batfle every effort of commer- 
cial enterprise, had fatally succeeded in their 
attempts at the epoch of the war." 

In concluding this part of our subject, we 
refer the reader to the following notable Fed- 
eralists, who in various ways have had a hand 
in fulminating the foregoing treasonable ex- 
tracts, with hundreds of others, "too numerous 
to mention": the Brookses, the Strongs, the 
Otises, and the Quincys, of Boston: the Clark- 
sons, Rays, Ludlows, Remsons, Ogdens, Pear- 
sails, Lenoxes, Harrisons, Lawrences, McCor- 
micks, Colemans, and Webbs, of New York; 
the Willings, Francises, Norrises, Biddies, 
Latimers, Filghmans, Waluses, Ralstones, and 
Lewises, of Philadelphia; and the Gilmans, 
the Olivers, the Stewarts, the Howards, the 
Smiths, th" Briggses, the Grahams, and the 
Coopers, of Baltimore. 

The Federals were in power in Congress 
during the Administration of Gen. Washing- 
ton, and completely in power during the Ad- 
ministration of the elder Adams. Then was 
their time to put in motion their machinery for 
a "strong government." The occasion was 
ripe, says Carey, and they passed an alien 
law, calculated, under pretext of military ne- 
cessity, to eventually keep all foreign born 
people from participAting iu our Govei'nment 
affairs. They knew that the "foreign element" 
when one settled in this country, went with the 
Democratic party, hence the alien law, under 
a plausible pretext, ,to cruse out that element, 



36 



FIVE|HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



and to enable them to hold the reigns of 
power. 

In the series of measures for their "strons; 
goTernment" was also the sedition law. 

Having determined to force the Government 
into radical extremes, the Federals, knowing 
their conduct would be criticised, and through 
criticism and free discussion their purposes 
thwarted, they set about the means to prevent 
such discussion, and the following law was in- 
tended for that purpose. 

THE SEDETION LAW. 

"Sec 1. Be it enacted^ ^c, If any persons 
shall unlawfully combine or conspire together 
with intent to oppose any measure or meas- 
ures of the Government of the United States 
[then as now the Government was ih.& party '\ 
which are, or shall be directed by the proper 
authority, or to impede the operation of any 
law of the United States, or to intimidate or 
prevent any person from holding a place or of- 
fice in or under the Government of the United 
States, from undertaking, performing or exe- 
cuting his trust, or duty, and if any person or 
persons with intent as aforesaid, shall counsel, 
advise or attempt to procure any insurrection, 
riot, unlawful assembly or combination, wheth- 
er such conspiracy, threatening, counsel, ad- 
vice, or attempt, shall have t\\Q proposed effect 
ar not. he or they shall be deemed guilty of a 
high misdemeanor and on conviction laefore 
any Court of the United States having juris- 
diction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not 
exceeding live thousand dollars, and by im- 
prisonment, .during a term not less than six 
months 7ior exceeding five years, and further, 
at the discretion of the Court, may be holden 
to find sureties for his or their good behavior 
in such sum and for such time as the said 
Court may direct. 

"Sec. 2. And he it further enacted, That if 
any i^erson shall write, print, utter or publish, 
or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, 
uttered or published, or shall knowingly or 
willingly aid in writing, printing, uttering or 
publishing any false, scandalous and malicious 
writing or writings against the Government 
(the party in power) of the United States, or 
either House of the Congress of the United 
States, or the President of the United States, 
with intent to defame the said Government, or 
either House of the Congress, or the said Presi- 
dent, or to bring them or either of them into 
contenipt or disrepute [see Gen. Hascall's order 
for a copy from this] or to excite against them, 
or either, or any of them, the hatred of the 
good people of the United States, or to stir up 
sedition within the United States, or to excite 
any unlawful combination therein for opposing 
or resisting any law of the United States, or 
any act of the President of the United States, 
done in pursuance of any such law [this is 
much milder than the law of indemnity of 
1862] or of the powers in him vested by the 



Constitution of the United States, or to resist. 
oppose or defeat any such law or act, or to aid, 
engage or abet any hostile designs of any for- 
eign nation against the United States, their 
people or Government, then such person being 
thereof convicted before the Court of the Uni- 
ted States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be 
punished by a fine, not exceeding §2,000, and 
by imprisonment not exceeding two years. 

"Sec. 3. And be it further enacted and de- 
clared. That if any person shall be prosecu- 
ted under this act for writiug or publishing any 
libel as aforesaid, it ahall be lawtul for the 
defendent upon the trial of the cause to give in 
evidence in his defense the truth of the mat- 
ter contained in the publication charged as a 
libel, [this is milder than the action against 
Vallandigiiam and others] and the jury, who 
shall try the cause, shall have a right to deter- 
mine the law and the fact, under the direction 
of the court, as in other cases. 

"Sec 4. And he it further enacted. That 
this act shall continue and be in force until the 
3d day of March, 1801, and no longer, provi- 
ded, that the expiration of the act shall not 
prevent or defeat a prosecution and punishment 
of any offence against the law during the time 
it shall be in force. 

"July 17, 1798." 

objects of the sedition law. 

Thus, this law was to continue to the very 
day the then Federal Administration was to go 
out of power, and no longer, and if they 
should succeed in prolonging their power, it 
could be re-enacted. The reader will see from 
this its real object, which was to silence all op- 
position to the Federal Administration, while 
they proceeded to mould their "strong govern- 
ment." 

Under this act, Mathew Lyox, of Vermont 
was put in prison for speaking disrepectful of 
the President. A "culprit" 

"Was found guilty and punished in New 
Jersey for the simple wish that the wadding of 
a gun, discharged on a festive day, had made 
an inroad into, or pierced the posterior of Mr. 
Adams, the President," &c. — [Olive Branch, 
p. 89. 

^VE, THE GOVERNMENT IN 179S. 
Many other similar cases are recorded, but 
this will suflSce. The Federals of that day, 
were great sticklers for "sustaining the Gov- 
ernment." Everything the "Government"' 
chose to propose or do, must be acquiesced in 
by the people without a murmur, as it is at the 
present day. They were in power then. Wc 
will give a few samples. 

"I believe that some of the old French 
leaven remains against us, and that some vile 
and degenerate wretches, whom I shall call 



SCRAPS FROM MT SCRAP-BOOK. 



37 



French partizans, or American Jacobines will 
not join any military association or patriotic 
loan. These men should be watched. — {Balti- 
more Federal Gazette, July 5, 1798. 

The following is pitched in the same key, 
ang runs in the same vein, of the demands of 
the ins to-day, and did we not assure the read- 
er, was the preamble to a set of resolutions 
got up by the Federal majority of the New 
York Senate, and passed March 5, 1799, would 
be taken for granted as the "loyal'" efferes- 
cence of some "Loyal League" of the present 
day: 

'■'•And whereas, Our peace, prosperity and 
happiness, eminently depend on the preserva- 
tion of the Union, in order to which a reason- 
able confidence in the constituted authorities is 
indispensible, and 

Whereas, Every measure calculated to weak- 
en that confidence has a tendency to destroy 
the usefulness of our public functionaries," 
&c. 

This was the Federal response to the mur- 
murings of the people against the infamous 
Sedition and Alien laws. 

And be it remembered, these same Federals 
just thirteen years afterward, Joined in the cru- 
sade against Madison's administration (as we 
have shown) without so much as pretending to 
a tangible excuse. They went below the hard 
pan of infamy to "excite jealousies," &c. 

The clergymen of that day, of the leading 
orders, were mostly Federalists. Their ser- 
mons were full of devotion to "the Govern- 
ment." 

"It is a time of day that requires cautious 
jealousy; not jealousy of your magistrates, for 
you have given them your confidence. * * 
Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from 
blood. Let him that hath none, sell his coat 
and buy one. — Sermoii of Rev. Dr. Parish, 
of Boston, July 4, 1799. 

In this connection we give the views of Jef- 
ferson on a fair and candid discussion of pub- 
lic affairs, written probably in answer to the 
claim of the New York Federals, and we give 
the credit to JeflFerson, lest the "loyal" men 
may read the sentiment as pure "copperhead- 
ism." 

"It would be a dangerous delusion were a 
confidence in the men of our choice to silence 
our fears for the safety of our rights. Confi- 
dence is everywhere the parent of despotism. 
Free government is founded in jealousy, and 
not in confidence. It is jealousy and not con- 
fidence which prescribes limited constitutions 
to bind down those whom we are obliged to 
trust with power. Our constitution has ac- 



Icordingly fixed the limits to which and nc fur- 
jther, our confidence may go, and let the hon- 
I est advocate of confidence read the Alien and 
Sedition acts, and say if the constitution has 
not been wise in fixing limits for the govern- 
ment it created, and whether we should be wise 
in destroying those limits Let him say what 
the government is, if it be not a tyranny, 
which the men of our choice have conferred 
on the President, and the President of our 
choice has assented to and accepted over the 
friendly strangers to whom the united spirit of 
our country and its laws had pledged hospi- 
tality and protection. The men of our choice 
have more respected the bare suspicions of 
the President than the solid rights of inno- 
cence, the claims of justification, the sacred 
force of truth, and the forms and substance of 
law and justice." 

Then read the following, and see if it comes 
within the limits of Jefferson's ideas of fair 
and candid discussion under a proper "jeal- 
ousy" to guard and respect constitutional 
rights, and also let the reader determine in his 
heart whether the following extracts from Fed- 
eral malcontents come within the just rule laid 
down by Webster, as follows: 

"The spirit of liberty is jealous of encroach- 
ments, jealous of power, jealous of men. It 
demands checks; it seeks for guarantees, it in- 
sists on securities; it entrenches itself behind 
strong defences, and fortifies itself with all 
possible cure against the assaults of ambition 
and passion. It does not trust the amiable 
weaknesses of human nature, 'and therefore 
will not permit power to overstep its prescribed 
limits, though benevolence, good intent, and 
patriotic purposes come along with it" 

DAMN THE GOTEKNMENT IX 1814. 
This was when his party were \-a. j^oiver, and 
talked of war. This same Reverend preached 
a sermond at Byfield, April 7, 1814, when his 
party was out of power, and the country was 
actually at war with another country, in 
which he said, p. IS: 

"The Israelits became weary of yielding the 
fruit of their labor to pamper their splendid 
tyrants. They left their political Moses. They 
separated. Where is our Moses? Where is 
therod of his miracles? Where is our Aaron? 
Alas, no voice from the burning bush has di- 
rected the house." 

On page 18 he says: 

"There is a point, there is an hour, beyond 
which you will not bear." 

"Such is the temper of American Republi- 
cans [the Democratic Republicans that sup- 
ported the war and Mr. Madison] so called. 
A new language must be invented before we 
attempt to express the baseness of their con- 
duct, or dscribe the rottenness of their hearts.'' 
—p. 21. 



38 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



"New England, if invaded, would be. obliied 
to defend herself. Do you not then owe it to 
your children, and owe it to your God, te make 
peace for yourselves ?" — p. 23. 

"You may as well expect the cat:iract of Ni- 
agara to turn its currant to the head of Supe- 
rior, as a wicked Co7igress to viake a pause in 
the icork of destroying their country^ while 
the people will furnish the means. "^/'. 8 

"A thousand times as many sons of America 
have probably fallen victims of this ungodly 
war, as perished in Israel by tlie edict of Pha- 
raoh! Still, the war is only beginning. If 
ten thousand have fallen, ten thousand times 
ten thousand may fall."—/'. 7. 

This, says Carey, would require 100,000,000 
victims, when there were but 8,000,000 to se- 
lect from. 

''Tyrants are the same on the banks of the 
Nile* and the Potomac, at Memphis and at 
Washington, in a monarchy and a Republic.''' 
—p. 9. 

"Like the worshippers of MoLOcn, the sup- 
porters of a vile administration sacrifice their 
children and families on .he altar of Democra- 
cy. Like the widows of Hindoostan they con- 
sume themselves." — p. 11. 

"The full vials of despotism are poured out 
on your heads, and yet you may challenge the 
ploddding Israelite, the stupid African, the 
feeble Chinese, the drowsy Tui-k, or the frozen 
exile of Siberia, to equal you iii tame suhmis- 
sion to the powers that he.— p. 12. 

"Here we must trample on the mandates of 
despotism, or here ive must remain slaves for- 
ever.'^ — p. 13. 

"Has not New England as much to appre- 
hend as the sons of Jacob had? but no child 
has been taken from the river to lead us through 
the sea."' — p. 20. 

"If judgments are coming on the nation; — if 
the sea does not open thee a path, where, how. 
and in what manner will you seek relief" — 
p. 20. 

"God will bring good from every evil — the 
famishers of Egypt lighted Israel to the land 
of Cannan."— p. 22 

"Which sooty slave in all the ancient domin- 
ion has more obsequiously watched the eye of 
his master or flew to the indulgence of his de- 
sires, more servilly than the same mastei's have 
waited and watched, and obeyed the orders of 
the great N.-vpoleox. — \_Discourse delivered at 
Byfield, April 8, 1813,iJ.2l. 

"Let every man who sanctions this war by 
his suffrage or influence, remember that he is 
laboring to cover himself and his country with 
blood — the blood of the slain will cry from the 
ground against him." — p 23. 

"How will the supporters of this anti-chris- 
tian warfare endure their sentence — endure 



their own reflections — endure the. ^re that for- 
ever burns — the worm which never dies — the 
hozannas of heaven, while the smoke of their 
torments ascends forever and ever.'' — p. 24. 

"The legislators who yielded to this war, 
when assailed by the manifesto of their own 
party chief, establisked inequality and murder 
by law.'' — p. 9. 

''In the first onset [of the war] moral prin- 
ciple was set at defiance. The laws of God 
and hopes of man were utterly disdained. — 
Vice threw off her veil, and crimes were decked 
with highest honors. This war not only tol- 
crries crimes, hut calls for them — demands 
them. Crimes are the food of its life — the 
arms of its strength. This war is a monster, 
which every hour gormandizes a thousand 
crimes, and yet cries give! give! In its birth, 
it demanded the violation of all good faith, per- 
jury of office, the sacrifice of neutral impar- 
tiality. The first moment in which the dragon 
moved, piracy and murder ivere leyalized. — 
Havoc, death and conflagration were the viands 
of her first repast." — p. 11. 

"Those western states which have been vio- 
lent for this abominable war of murder — those 
states which have thirsted for blood, God has 
given tkem blood to drink. Their men have 
fallen. Their lamentations are deep and loud." 
—p. 16. 

"Our Government — if they may be called the 
Government — and not the destroyers — of the 
country, bear these things as patiently as a 
colony of convicts sail into Eotanv Bay." — 
p. 5. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PROOFS OF FEDERAL TREASOX.— Comixusd. 

Tone of the Federals when in Power. ..Similar to the Tone 
of Those now in Power. ..Congregational Ministers' Ad- 
dress to President Adams. ..E.xtract from Sermon ef Rev. 
Jedidah Morse. ..E.xtracts from Sermon bj' Rev. F. S. 
F, Gahdner, 1812. ..Extracts from Disi'ourses of Ker. 
Dr. Osgood, 1810. ..The Clamors of New England for Sep- 
aration and Dissolution. .."Extracts of Treason". ..From 
Boston Centiuel, Dec. 10, lS14...From same Dec. 14, 
1S14... Sundry other extracts from same. ..Ipswich Me- 
morial. ..Deertield. (Mass.) Petition. ..From the Crisis, 
No. ."...From the Federal Republican, 1814. ..Extract 
from Address to the Hartford Convention, A:c...From 
Boston Daily Advertiser, lS14...From Federal liepubli- 
can, 1814. ..Extracts Irom proceedings of a Treasonable 
Meeting in Reading, Mass. ..Also from Memorial of citi- 
zens of Newburyport to the Legislature — From Federal 
Republican, Nov. 7, lS14...From Boston Gazette. ..l>om 
Sermon of Rev. David Osgood. ...\1so from his Address 
before the Legislarure... Extracts from a treasonable let- 
ter from Federals to James MADisox...From Boston Re- 
pertory... From New York Commercial Adve»tiser. 

THE TONE OF FEDERALS WHEN IN POWER. 

In 1798, a Convention of Congregational 
ministers issued an address to President Ad- 
ams, from which we take a short extract: 

"The intimate connection between our civil 
and Christian blessings is alone sufficient to 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



39 



justify the decided part tvhich the clergy of 
America have uniformly taken in sxipportiny 
the constituted authorities and political in- 
terests of their country " 

Their political party was then in power. 

On the 9th of May, 1793, theRev. Jedediah 
Morse preached a sermon, in which he urged 
everybody to yield strict obedience to the pow- 
ers that be, which were of his political faitn. 
He said: 

"To the unfriendly disposition and conduct 
of a foreign power, we may ascribe the unhap- 
py dissensions that have existed among us, 
which have so permanently disturbed our peace, 
and threatened the overthrow of our govern- 
ment. Their maxim to which they have strict- 
ly and steadily adhered has Iseen "divide and 
govern.'' Their too great influence among us 
has been exerted vigorously and in conformity 
to a deep laid plan in cherishing party spirit, 
in villifying the man we have by our free suf- 
frages elected to administer our Constitution, 
and have thus endeavored to destroy the confi- 
dence of the people in the constituted authori- 
ties, and divide them from the Government." 

Of the same tenor was Gov. Gilljiore's 
message to the Legislature of New Hampshire 
in 179S, the legislative response to the same — 
the Massachusetts Legislature and the Address 
of the Federalists of Elizabethtown, in 1798. 

EXTRACTS FROM A SERMON DELIVERED BY THE 
REV. F. S. F. G.iRDIXER, RECTOR OF TRINTY 
CHURCH, BOSTOX, April 9, 1812. 

" The British, after all, save lor us by their 
convoyB infinitely more property than they de- 
prive us of, where they take one ship they pro- 
tect ticenty ; where they commit one outrage 
they do many acts of kindness." — p. 15. 

•' England is willing to sacrifice everything 
to conciliate us except her honour and inde- 
pendence." — p. 10. 

"It is a war unexampled in the history of 
the world; wantonly proclaimed on the most 
frivolous and groundless pietences against a 
nation from whose friendship we might derive 
the most signal advantages." — Discourse de- 
livered July 23i/, 1813, ^J. 3. 

''Let no consideration, my brethren, deter 
your at all times, and in all places, from exe- 
crating the present war. It is a war unjust, 
foolish and ruinous." — p. 15. 

"As Mr. Madison has declared war, let 
Mr. Madison carry it on." — p. 17. 

" The Union has long since been virtually 
dissolved, and it is full time that this part 
of the United States should take care of it- 
selfP—jy. 19. 

treason of the eev. dr. OSGOOD, pastor of 

THE MEDFOUD CHURCH. 

"The strcng prepossessions of so great a 



proportion of my fellow-citizens in favor of a 
race of demons, and against a nation of more 
religion, virtue, good faith, generosity, and 
beneficence, than any that now is, or ever has 
been, upon the face of the earth, wring my 
soul with anguish and fill my soul with appi'e- 
hension and terror of the judgments of heaven 
upon this sinful people." — Discourse of April 
Sth, 1810, J9. 40. 

"If at the command of weak or wicked ru- 
lers, they undertake an unjust war, each man 
who volunteers his services in such a cause, or 
loans his money for its support, or by his con- 
versation, his writings, or any other mode of 
influence, encourages its prosecution, that man 
is an accoiiaplice in wickedness, loads his con- 
science with the blackest crimes, brings the 
guilt of blood upon his soul, and in the sight 
of God and His law, is a murderer." — Dis- 
course of June Z7th, 1812, ^j. 9. 

" One hope only remains, that this last stroke 
of perfidy (the war) may open the eyes of a 
besotted people, that they may awake, like a 
giant from his slumbers, and wreak their ven- 
geance on their betrayers by DRIVING than 
from their stations, and placing at the helm 
more skillful and faithful hands." — p. 12. 

new ENGLAND CLAMORS FOR SEPARATION 
AND DISSOLUTIO.V. 

It gives us no pleasure to reproduce the fol- 
lowing extracts, as the touch-stone of i\i^ pre- 
vailing public sentiment of the Puritans forty- 
nine years ago. These extracts furnish a sad 
commentary on the clamoring cry of "treason" 
by the same party and the same men against 
all whom, while willing to aid our Government 
in every essential way to reduce this rebellion, 
and preserve the Constitution, claim and ex- 
ercise the right to criticise in a manly spirit 
what they believe to be measures destructive 
of constitutional rights and civil liberty. — 
The world has been taught that there is a vast 
difference between such articles as the follow- 
ing and a manly protest against the blow that 
strikes down civil rights arbitrarily, without 
any of those means of redress or modes of trial 
known to civil jurisprudence. 

James Madison was often severely censur- 
ed by many of his most ardent political friends 
for not imprisoning the utterers of the following 
sentiments of treason, and although the dan- 
ger from these influences was imminent, and 
at the time threatened to finally destroy the 
Government, Mr. Madison trusted to the 
good sense of i)iQ people to maintain this Gov- 
ernment, nor did he arbitrarily arrest a man, 
nor proclaim the suspension of the writ of 
hebeas corpus against all the people. The se- 



40 



FIVE HU^"DRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



quel proved the wisdom of JLvdisox's course, 
for while the authors of that seditious treason 
that threatened to take New England out of 
the Union, soon found themselves buried in 
disgrace, he was spared the charge of even the 
attempt at oppression. All will agree that he 
would have been justified in arresting the au- 
thors of the following : 

EXTRACTS OF TREASON. 

"Those who startle at the danger of separa- 
tion tell -As that the soil of New England is 
hard and sterile — that deprived of the pro- 
ductions of the South, we should soon become 
a wretched race of cowherds and fishermen; 
that our narrow territory and diminished pop- 
ulation would malie us an easy prey to foreign 
powers. Do these men forget what national 
energy can do for a people? Have they not 
read of Holland? Do they not remember that 
it grew in wealth and power amidst combat and 
alarm! That it threw oflf the yoke of Spain 
(our Virginia) and its chapels became churches 
and its poor man's cottages prince's palaces ?'' 
— Boston Centind^ Dec. 10, 1814. 

"It is said, that to make a treaty of com- 
merce with the enemy is to violate the consti- 
tution, and to sever the Union. Are they not 
Loth already virtually destroyed ? Or in what 
Stage of cxistance would they be should we 
declare a neutrality, or even withhold taxes 
and men." — Boston Ceniinel, Dec. 14, 1814. 

"By a commercial treaty with England which 
shall provide for the admission of such States 
as may wish to come into it, and which shall 
prohibit England from makiny a treeity Kith 
the South and West — which does not give us 
at least equal privileges with herself — our com- 
merce will be secured to us; our standing in 
the nation raised to its proper level, and New 
England feelings will no longer be sported 
with, or her interest violated. — Boston Ccnti- 
nel, 1814. 

"If we submit quietly our destruction is cer- 
tain. If we oppose them with a highminded 
and steady conduct, who will say that we shall 
not heat them all 9 No one can suppose that 
a conjlict with a tyranny at home, would be as 
easy as with an enemy from abroad, but firm- 
ness will anticipate and prevent it. Cowardice 
dreads it, and will surely bring it on at last. 
Why this delay? Why leave that to chance 
which our firmness should command? Will 
our wavering frighten Government into compli- 
ance?" — Ibid. 

"We must do it deliberately, and not from 
irritation at our wrongs and 8ufiFerings, and 
when we have once entered on the high course 
of honor, and independence, let no diflSculties 
stay our course, nor dangers drive us back." — 
Ibid. 

"We are convinced that the time is arrived 
when Massachusetts must make a resolute 



stand, and recurring to first principles, view 
men and things as they are. The sophisticat- 
ed Government which these States have wit- 
nessed for thirteen years past, has almost com- 
pleted their ruin, and every day still adds to 
theiv distracted condition." — [Ipswich Mem- 
orial, Sept. 18, 1813. 

"The sentiment is houi-ly extending, and 
intliese Sort hern States will soon be universal, 
that we are in no better condition with respect 
to the /So uf/t than that of a conquered people." 
— Boston Centinel, Jan. 13. 1813. 

"We have no more interest in waging this 
sort of war at present, at the command of Vir- 
ginia, than Holland in accelerating her ruin, 
by uniting her destiny with France." — Ibid. 

"The land is literally taken from its old 
possessions and given to strangers." — Ibid. 

[This is just what New England is now clam- 
oring for in the South.] 

"Either the Southern States must drag us 
further into the war, or we must drag them 
out of it, or the chain will break. — Ibid. 

"We must be no longer deafened by senseless 
clamors about a separation of the States." — 
Ibid. 

"Should the present Administration, with 
the adherence in the Southern States still per- 
sist in the prosecution of this ruinous and 
loicked rear, in unconstitutionally creating new 
States in the mud of Luuisiana [just what we 
are fighting to keep in] (the inhabitants of 
which country are as ignorant of Republican- 
ism as the alligators of their swamps) and in 
opposition to the commercial rights and privi- 
leges of New England, much as we deprecate 
a separation of the Union, we deem it an evil 
much less to be dreaded than a co-operation 
with them in their nefarious projects." — Deer- 
field [Mass.) Petition, Jan. 10, 1814. 

"We must put away all childish fears of re- 
sistance." — Crisis No. 3. 

"What shall we do to be saved? One thing 
only: The people must rise in their majesty 
— protect themselves, and compel their un- 
worthy servants to obey their will." — Boston 
Centinel, Sept. 10, 1814. 

"The C-'/u'cfi is already dissolved, practical- 
ly.''— 3id. 

"You ask my opinion on a subject which is 
much talked of, a dissolution of the Union. On 
this subject I differ from my fetlow-citizens 
generally, and therefore I ought to speak and 
write with diffidence. I have for many years 
considered the Union of the Northern and 
Southern states as «o< essejitial to the safety, 
and very much opposed to the interest of both 
sections. The extent of the territory is too 
large to be harmoniously governed by the same 
representative body. A^despotic prince, like the 
Emperor of Russia may govern a wide extent 
of territory, and numerous distinct nations, for 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



41 



his will controls their jealousies and discor- 
dent interests; but when states, having ditFer- 
ent interests are permitted to decide on those 
interests themselves, no harmony can be ex- 
pected. The commercial and non commercial 
states have views so different that I conceive it 
to be impossible that they ever can be satisfied 
with the same laws and the same system of 
measures. , I firmly believe that each section 
would be better satisfied to govern itself, and 
each is large and populous enough for its own 
protection, especially as we have no powerful 
nations in our neighborhood. These observa- 
tions are equally applicable to the Western 
States, a large body and a distinct portion of 
the country, which would govern themselves 
better than the Atlantic states can govern 
them. [This was in accordance with the old 
Federal notion that some states should be con- 
trolled and governed by others — and New Eng. 
land has ever acted on that doctrine.] That 
the Atlantic States do not want the aid of the 
strength, nor the counsels of the Western 
States is certain, and I believe the public Avel- 
fare would be better consulted and more pro- 
moted in a sfjWarai'e than in a Federal Consti- 
tution. The mountaiiis form a natural line of 
division, and moral and commercial habits 
would unite the Western people. In like man- 
ner the moral and commercial habits of the 
Northern and Middle states would link them 
together, as would the like habits of the slave 
holding states- Indeed, the attempt to unite 
this vast territory under one head, has long ap- 
peared to me al'i-nrd I I believe a peaceable 
separation would be for the happiness of all 
sections, but as the citizens of this country 
have generally been of a different opinion, it is 
best not to urge for a separation, till they are 
convinced of their error." — Com. in Boston 
Centinel, July 18, 1813. 

"We will ask the infatuated man of pro- 
perty, beguiled by the arts of Albert Galla. 
Tix, by what fund, and by whom, they will be 
repaid the advances made on exchequer bills 
and the loans, in the event of a dissolution of 
the Union'? AVe ask them further, whether 
from present appearances, and under existing 
circumstances, there is the least foundation to 
build a hope that the Union will last twelve 
monthsf We look to Russia to save us from 
the horrors of anarchy. If a reverse of for- 
tune is in reserve for Alexander, and the war 
continues, the Union is evidentli/ gone " — 
Federal Republican, 1814. 

EXTRACT FROM AN ADDRESS TO THE HARTFORD 
CONYEXTION. 

"The once venerable Constitution HAS 
EXPIRED BY DISSOLUTION in the hands 
of those wicked men who were sworn te pro- 
tect it. Its spirit, with the precious souls of 
its first founders, has jled forever. Its remains, 
with theirs, rest in the silent tomb! At your 
hands, therefore, we demand deliverance. New 
England is unanimous, and we announce our 
irrevocable decree, that the tyrannical oppres- 
sion of those who at present usurp the powers 



of the Constitution, is beyond endurance AND 
WE WILL RESIST IT.''— Boston Centinel 
Dec. 28th, 1814. 

" Long enough have we grasped at shadows 
and illusions, and been compelled to recoil up- 
on ourselves, and feel the stings of real, sub- 
stantial, hopeless woe, sharpened by disap- 
pointment. Long enough have we paid the 
taxes and fought the battles of the Southern 
states! Long enough have been scouted, 
abused and oppressed by men who claim a 
I'ight to rule and to despise us! Long enough 
have we been submissive slaves of the sense- 
less representatives ot the equally senseless 
natives of Africa, and of the semi-barbarous 
huntsmen of the western wilderness. Reali- 
ties alone can work our deliverance, and deliv- 
erance we deliberately, solemnly, and irrevoca- 
bly decree to be our right, and WE WILL 
OBTAIN IT!''— Ibid, Bee. 2Ath, 1814. 

"The sufferings which have multiplied so 
thick about us have at length aroused New 
England. She will now meet every danger, 
and go through every difficulty, until her rights 
are restored to the full, and settled too strong- 
ly to be shaken. She will put aside all half 
v-ay measures. She will look with an eye of 
doubt on those who oppose them. She will 
tell such men, that if they hope to lead in the 
cause of New England INDEPENDENCE, 
they must do it in the spirit of New Endand 
men.''— iJic?, Dec. 1, 1814. 

"Throwing off all connection wiili this 
wasteful war — making peace with the ei.emy, 
and opening once more our commerce, would 
be a wise and manly course." — Ibid, Dec. 17 
1814. ' 

"My plan is to withhold our money and 
make ti s'parace peace with England.'" — Bos- 
ton Daily Advertiser, 1814. 

"That there will be a revolution if the war 
continues many months, no man can doubt, 
who is acquainted with human nature, and is 
accustomed to study cause and effect. The 
Eastern States are marching stealthily and 
straight forward up to the object. In times 
past there was much talk and loud menacts, but 
little action among the friends of reform in 
New England. Now, we shall hear little said, 
and much done. The new constitution [of 
the Hartford Convention] is to go into opera- 
tion as soon as two or three states shall have 
adopted it." — FMeral Republican, 1814. 

On the 5th of January, 1815, a treasonable 
meeting was held by the Federals, at Reading, 
which passed a long string of incendiary reso- 
lutions, from which we select the following: 

^^ Resolved, That we pla«e the fullest confi- 
dance in the Governor and Legislature of Mas- 
sachusetts, and in the State authorities of New 
England, and that to them, under God, the 
Chief Governor of the Universe, we look for aid 
and direction, and that for the present, until 
the public opinion shall be known, we will not 



42 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



enter our earnings, pay our continental taxes, 
or aiii, inform, or assist any officer in their col- 
lection." 

"In this alarming state of things we can no 
longer be silent. When our unquestionable 
I rights are invaded, we will not sit down and 
coolly calculate what it may cost to defend 
them. We will not barter the liberties of our 
children for slavish repose, or surrender our 
birthright, but with our lives. 

"We remember the resistance of our fathers 
to oppressions which dwindle into insignifi- 
cance when compared with those we are called 
upon to endure. The rights which we have 
received from God we will never yield to man. 
We call upon our State Legislature to protect 
us in the enjoyment of thote privileges, to as- 
sert which our fathers died, and to defend 
which, we profess, ourselves, ready to resist 
unto blood ! We pray your honorable body 
to adopt measures immediately to secure to us 
especially cmr undoubted right to trade [with 
Great Britain] within our own State. 

"We are ourselves ready to aid you in se- 
curing it to us, to the utmost of our power, 
peaceably if we can — FORCEIBLY ifwemust^ 
and we pledge to you the sacrifice of ourselves 
and property in support of whatever measures 
the dignity and liberties of this free, sover- 
eign and INDEPENDENT STATE,_ viay 
^eem to your wisdom to demand!" — Extract 
from a Memorial of the citizens of JVewbury- 
port, (Mass.,) Jan. 31, 1814, to the Legis- 
lature of Massachusetts. 

"On or before the 4th of July, if James 
Madison is not out of office, a neiv form of 
government will be in operation in the Ea.st- 
ern section of the Union, instantly after, (he 
contest in viang of the States will be, whether 
to adhere to the old, or join the new govern- 
ment.' Like everything else, which was fore- 
told years ago, and whioh is verified every 
day, this warning will also be villified as 
visionary. Be it so. But, Mr. Madison can- 
not complete his tervi of service if the war 
continues! It is not possible ! and if he knew 
human nature, he would see it. — Federal Re- 
publican, JSov. 7, 1814. 

" Is there a Federalist, a patriot, in Ameri- 
ca, who concedes it his duty to shed his blood 
for Bonaparte, for Madison, for Jefferson, and 
the host of ruffians in Congress, who have set 
their faces against us for years, and spirited 
up the brutal part of the populace to destroy 
us? Not one! Shall we then, any longer, be 
held in slavery, and driven to desperate poverty 
by such a graceless faction? Heaven forbid!" 
Boston Gazette. 



"If, at the present moment, no symptoms of 
eivil jvar appear they certainly will soon un- 
less the courage of the war party fails them." 
— Sermon by David Osgood, D. /? , Pastor of 
the Church at Medford, delivered June 26th, 
1812, p. 9. 

" A civil war becomes as certain as the 



events that happen, according to the known 
laws and estubli.sbed course of nature." — Ibid, 
p. 15. 

" If we would preserve the liberties of that 
struggle, (the American Revolution,) so dear- 
ly purchased, the call for RESISTANCE 
against the usurpations of our oicn Govern- 
ment is as urgent as it was formerly against 
themother country.''' — Rev. Osgood'' s discourse 
before the Lieut. Governor and Legislature of 
Massachusetts, May 31, 1809,^.25. 

"If the impending negociation with Great 
Britain is defeated by insidious artifice — if the 
friendly and conciliatory proposals of the ene- 
my shonld not, from French subserviency, or 
views of sectional ambition, be met through- 
out with a spirit of moderation and sincerity, 
so as to terminate the infamous war, which is 
scattering iis terrors around us, and arrest the 
calamities and distress of a disgraced country, 
it is necessary to apprise you that such conduct 
will be no longer borne with. The injured States 
will be compelled by every motive of duty, in- 
terest, and honor, by one manly exertion of 
their strength, to dash into atoms the bonds 
of tyranny ! It will then be t(o late to re- 
treat! The die will be cast — freedom pu/- 
chased.'' — Extract from aletter to James Mad- 
ison, entitled '■'■ Northern Grtevancei.^' and 
extensively circulated through New York and 
New England, dated May, 1814, p. 4. 

"A separation of the States will be an inev- 
itable result. Motives numerous and urgent 
will demand that measuie. As they originate in 
oppression, the oppressors must be responsible 
for the momentous and contingent events aris- 
ing from the dissolution of the present Con- 
federacy, and the erection of separate Govern- 
ments! It will be their work. While posterity 
will admire the independent spirit of the East- 
ern section of our country, and with senti- 
ments of gratitude enjoy the fruits of their 
firnuiess and wisdom, the descendants of the 
South and W<st will have reason to curse the 
infatuation uud folly of your councils." — Ibid, 
p. 9. 

"Bold and resolute, when they step forth in 
the sacred cause of freedom [how much this 
sounds like latter day Abolition talk] and in- 
dependence,t'he Northern people will secure their 
object. No obstacle can impede them! No 
force can withstand their powerful arm. The 
most numerous armies will melt before their 
manly strength! Does not the page of history 
instruct you that the feeble debility of the 
South never could face the vigorous activity 
of the North? Do not the events of past ages 
remind you of the valuable truth, that a single 
spark of Northern liberty, especially when en- 
lightened by congenial commerce, will explode 
a whole atmosphere of sultry Southern despot- 
ism. [How like late Abolition talk.] Ibid p. 
12. 



"When such are the effects of oppression 
wpon va^n resolved not to .sMi7«j7, as displayed 
in the north and south of Europe, and in all 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



43 



ages of the -world, do you flatter jourself with 
its producing a different operation in this 
country? Do you think the energies of North- 
ern freemen [very like late abolition boasts] 
are to be tamely smothered? Do you imagine 
they will allow themselves to be trampled upon 
with impunity, and by whom? The Southern 
and Western states ? By men whose united 
efforts are not sufficient to keep in order their 
own ensl'ived population, and defend their own 
frontiers? [How familiar this sounds with 
latter day boastings!] By warriors, whose re- 
peated attempts at invasion of a neighboring 
province have been disgracefully foiled by a 
handftil of disciplined troops? By generals, 
monuments of arrogance and folly? By coun- 
sels, the essence of corruption, imbecility and 
madness? 

" The aggregate strength of the South and 
West, if brought against the North, would be 
driven into the ocean, or back to their own 
Southern wilds. [How valiant Massachusetts 
was, then !] And they might think themselves 
fortunate if they escaped other punishment 
than a defeat which their temerity would merit. 
While the one would strive to enslave, the 
other would fight for freedom. [How familiar 
that phrase.] While the counsels of the one 
would be distracted with discordant interests, 
the decisions of the other would be directed 
by one soul ! Beware ! Pause ! ! before you 
take the fatal plunge."'" — I/,id, p. 13. 

"You have carried your oppressions to the 
utmost stretc h! Vfe viiW no longer ."ubmit! Re- 
store the Constitution to its purity. Give us 
security for the future — indemnity for the past! 
Abolish every tyrannical law! M^ke an imme- 
diate and honorable peace! Revive our com- 
merce! Increase our navy! Protect our sea- 
men! [That was what Mr. Madison was 
fighting for.] Unless vou comply with these 
just demand.?, without delay, WE WILL WITH- 
DRAW FROM THE UNION— SM.-fer to the 
U'lnds the bonds of tyranny, and trasmit to pos- 
terity that liberty purchased by the Revolu- 
tion."' — l!j>i }>■ 1-5. 

"Americans, prepare your nrms! You will 
soon be called to use them. We must use them 
for the Emperor of France or for ourselves. It 
is but an individual who now points to this 
ambiguous alternative; but, Mr. Madison and 
his cabal may rest assured there is in the hearts 
of many thousands in this abused and almost 
ruined country, a sentiment and energy to il- 
lustrate the distinction when his madness shall 
call it into action." — Boston Repertory. 

" Old Massachusetts is as terrible to the 
American now as she was to the British Cabinet 
in 1775. For America, too, has her Bute's 
and her NoRTifs. Let them, the Cf/mm^raaZ 
states breast themselves to the shock, and 
know, that to themselves they must look for 
safety. All party bickerings must be sacri- 
ficed [That sounds like the cant of Union 
League: s] on the altar of patriotism. Then, 



and not till then, shall they humble the pride 
and ambition of Virginia, whose strength lives 
in their weakness, and chastise the insolenge 
of those mad men of Kentucky and Tennessee 
who aspire to the government of these states, 
and threaten to involve the country in all the 
horrors of war " — A'. Y- Commercial Adver- 
tiser. 

This sheet has kept regular pace with its 
party in all its phases. It was a Federal sheet 
in 1812-U, &c.; Federal Jiepuhl i can in 132i; 
Whifj in 1833; Republican in 1S54; Union in 
1863. Has any one a doubt of the geneology 
of its principles or name ? 

Mr. Carey, in his Olive Branch, p. 132, 
says: 

"It is a most singular fact, that the cause of 
England [during the war] has been far more 
ably supported in our debates and in our polit- 
ical speculations and essays, than in London 
itself." 



CHAPTER VII.. 

OPPOSITION TO THE MEXICAN WAR — LIKE 
FATHER, LIKE SON — LIKE FEDERAL, LIKE 
WHIG. 

Treasonable opposition to the Mexican War. ..Mr. Lincoln 
charges the "Government" with being in the "wrong" 
...Caleb B. Smith glories in vot'ug to condemn the war 
...GIDDINO.S would "not vote a man or a dollar"'. ..The 
Press of 1848 on the War. ..From tke Warren Chronicle 
...Xenia Torch Light. ..Lebanon Star. ..Cincinnati Gazette 
...Kennebeck Journal. ..New Hampshire Statesman... 
Havefhill Gazette. ..Boston Sentinel. ..Boston Atlas... 
Boston Chronotvpe...New York Tribune. ..North Ameri- 
can. ..Baltimore Patriot. ..Louisville Journal. ..Nashville 
Gazette. ..Mt. Carmel Register, <tc.,...Also CoRWix's 
" bloody hands" diatribe, &c. 



TREASONABLE OPrOSITION TO THE MEXICAN 
AVAR. 

To the same end, and showing a like animus, 
we collate sundry extracts from speeches and 
editorials relative to the Mexican war, uttered 
by those who were then, as now, hostile to the 
Democratic party, and as is believed, for the 
reasons already given. 

Mr. Abraham Lincoln, in a speech in op- 
position to the Mexican war, said: 

"That he. the President, (Mr. Polk) is 
deeply conscious of being in the wrong; that 
he feels the blood of this war, like the blood 
of Abel, is crying to heaven against him," 
&c. 

He then goes into a summing up of the cost 
of the war, &c. See p. p. 93, 94, Ap. Cong. 
Globe, 1st Sess. 30th Cong. 

Mr. Caleb B. Smith, at the same session. 



44 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



in referring to the vote declaring the war un- 
necessary and unconstitutional, said: 

"I had the good fortune — and I deem it ex- 
treme good fortune — to have the opportunity 
to record my vote in favor of this sentence of 
condemnation. In giving that vote my heart 
concurred with my judgment." — [p. 321. 

Mr. GiDDiNGS said in reference to the same 
war: 

"But they (his friends) would permit him to 
say that he never had and never would, vote 
for a dollar or a man in a war which he had so 
long denounced as wicked and barbarous." 

The following are extracts taken from the 
leading presses of that day which opposed and 
do now oppose the Democracy: 

"The voice of lamentation and war, heard 
all over the country, from homes and firesides 
made desolate by the slaughter of fathers, and 
husbands, and brothers, is sweet music to the 
ears of the President and his friends, and they 
seem ambitious to swell the chorus by increas- 
ing the victims. * '■•• * We rejoice to see a 
large and respectable number of Whig papers 
in this and other states taking ground against 
further appropriations by Congress of men and 
money for the Mexican cut-throatine; business. 
This is as it should be." — ^Yarren (0.) Chroii- 
icle. 

"They (the Mexicans) are in the right — ice 
in the wront:/. They may appeal in confidence 
to the God of battles, but if we look for aid to 
any other than human power, it must be to the 
infernal machinations of hell., for thus far it 
would seem, the devil has governed and gui- 
ded all our actions in the premises." — A'enia 
(0.) Torch Light. 

"If Congress is opposed to the war — if that 
body is of opinion that it is unjust, impolitic 
and of a dangerous tendency, no duty can be 
more binding than that of refusing the means to 
prosecute it. '^ — Lebanon^ {0.) Star. 

"No man, no people, looking upon the con- 

■ te^t, can hel}^ sympathizing ivith Mexico, and 

uniting in uttering a bitter denunciation against 

our own Government. — Cincinnati^ (0.) Gazette. 

"None of the aggressors of Europe or Asia 
ever resorted to justificatory reasons which 
were so false and hypocritical as those alleged 
for our aggressions on Mexico." — Kennebeck, 
(J/e.,) Journal. 

"Let every one keep aloof from this unright- 
eous, infamous, God-abhorred icar, and it will 
soon come to an end. The prospect is, that 
^ the Adminietration can get neither men nor 
money to carry on the war. Thank the Lord 
for all that.'>'—N. R. Statesman. 

"To volunteer or vote a dollar to carry on 
the war, is moral treason against the God of 
reason ani the rights of mankind." — Iliver- 
hill^ {Mass.) Gazette. 



[This is the locolity from which emanated 
the petition presented by Mr. Adams for a dis- 
solution of the Union.] 

"Talk of this war as we may, shout, re- 
joice, illuminate your cities, it is still a war of 
injustice, of conquest and of unmitigated cvH^ 
and it is high time that the virtuous and patri- 
otic should speak out in condemnation' of it." 
— Boston u^'cntincl, 1848. 

"The Mexican war appears to be fast settling 
down to a mere matter of plunder and murder. 
* ■" * We think the war disreputable to 
the age we live in, and the country of which 
it is our boast to be called her children." — 
Boston Atlas. 

"If there is in the United States a breast 
worthy of American liberty, its impulses to 
Join the Mexicans, and hurl down upon the 
base, slavish, 7nercenary invaders, who, born 
in a Republic, go to play over the accursed 
game of the Hessians on the tops of those 
Mexican volcanoes, it tvould be a sad and 
woful JOY, nevertheless, to hear that the 
hordes under Scott and Taylor were every 
maji of them swept into the next world! — 
What business has an invading army in this?" 
— Boston Daily Chronotype. 

"The whole world knows that it is Mexico 
which has been imposed upon, and that our 
people are the robbers! So far as our Gov- 
ernment can affect it, the laws of heaven are 
suspended, and those of hell established in 
their stead. To the people of the United States. 
Your rulers are precipitating you into a fath- 
omless abyss of crime and calumny!" — N. 
Y. Tribune. 

"It is the President's war. Mexico is the 
Poland ot America. If there were excuse for 
the war, there is none for the measure which 
opened it. But what excuse is found for the 
war itself?" — North American. 

"What is it, then, that makes or allows Mr. 
Polk to sanction this war, and all the outrages 
of which it is the consequence? It is this: Mr. 
Polk is a weak man. He was selected to be 
the loco foco candidate for President because 
he was weak. It was this which recommended 
him to his party. It was this that elected him. 
It has been said, correctly, that it is a curse 
upon any nation to have weak minded rulers. 
We are under the judgment of that curse." — 
Baltimore Patriot. 

"If there is any conduct which constitutes 
moral treason, it is an attempt to embark or 
encourage the country in a war against God, 
as is the case in a war like that in which we 
are now engaged." — Louisville Journal. 

"To volunteer, or vote a dollar to carry on 
the war, is moral treason against the God of 
Heaven and the rights of mankind." — Nash- 
ville (Tenn.) Gazette. 

"We cannot possibly look favorably upon 
this war. Its first act was a gross outrage upon 



SCRAPS from' ISI'Y SCRAP-BOOK. 



45 



Mexico, and can it be supposed by Mr. Polk 
and his advisers, tliat an error so glaring— a 
crime so unpardonable, as this Mexican war, 
can be wliite-waslied?" — Mt. Carmel Register. 

Mr. CoEWiN, in a bitter speech denouncing 

the war, said: 

"Were I a Mexican, I would welcome these 
invaders with bloody hands to hospitable 
graves." 

These quotations might be seemingly in a 
more appropriate place under some other head, 
but as showing the motives of those who ever 
favored a "strong Government" to strike when- 
ever the iron of discord w'as hot, with a view to 
■weld together opposing. elements, to ultimately 
demonstrate a seeming necessity for their sys- 
tem of Government, they are here inserted. 

■\Ve freely admit that many of the masses 
who were influenced to adopt those extreme 
views were not actuated by the motives that 
evidently governed the authors, but such is 
human nature, that when the pride of opinion 
is once fixed, it can be easily controlled by 
arch, designing men, to further their views. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FURTHER SCHEMES IN THE PROGRESS OF DISSO- 
LUTION EXPOSED. 

The efforts to create a public debt to hasten the "Strong 
Government" ... 5Ir. King's ?2,000,OtK) gift, as a 
"means". ..Randolph opposed. ..C.^lhoun, as a means 
to an end, votes against his party... Purpose of tlie "Frag- 
ments of the Whig party "...Continued efforts to dissolve 
the Union. ..The Slavery issue used as a lever. ..The 
warnings of Jefferson. ..The Slavery Agitation "the 
death knell of the Union". ..Warnings of W.ishington 
...The voice of Jackson. ..of Harrison. &c. 

THE EFFORTS TO CEEATE A PUBLIC DEBT. 

Many have been the projects to create a Na- 
tional debt. As long ago as February 7th, 
1S17, Mr. King, Federalist, offered in Congress 

"a proposition to appropriate §2,000,000, to 
be divided among the states in proportion to 
their free population, in aid of the funds of 
charitable and humane institutions, bible and 
missionary societies, &c." — [See JViles Regis- 
ter, vol. U,p. 408. 

On the same day the bill to "set apart and 
pledge as a fund for Internal Improvements, 
the bonus and United States share of the divi- 
dends in the National Bank,'"' was passed by 
tioo majority in the House of Representatives. 
While some good men favored this scheme, it 
was generally supported by the Federals and 
ecessionists Mr. Randolph opposed and 



Calhoun favored, contrary to his pretended 
school of politics. — [See same authority. 

This was just after an expensive war. 

Failing to inaugurate that change of. Gov- 
ernment for which aristocratic aspirations had 
60 long struggled by popular commotions stir- 
red up on the basis of wars, banks, tariffs, 
distributions, &c., the malcontents naturall-y 
turned their attention to measures and acts 
more promising and auspicious. 

In an old, soiled and torn pamphlet, which 
survived the wreck of sundry newspaper files 
we had laid away years ago, occurs this pro- 
phetic language. [As the title page is entirely 
gone, we have neither the date or name of the 
author, but should judge it to have been writ- 
ten about the time the old Whig party gave 
way to the "Republican party."] 

CONTINUED EPfORTS TO DISSOLVE THE UNION. 

"The fragments of the Whig party having 
joined their fortunes with the abolition party, 
we may safely predict they will now yield noth- 
ing until ihey can bring about a dissolution of 
the Union. This seems to be their only pur- 
pose, for they see they can never control the 
ivhole Government as a unit.'' 

Mr. Samuel J. Tilden thus forcibly gives 
us a clue to the provocations of war, through 
the columns of the New York Evening Post: 

"How long could an orgamzQA. pauper agita- 
tion in England against France, or in France 
against England, continue without actual hos- 
tilities, especially if embracing a majority of 
the people, and the Governments' wars have 
as often been produced by popular passions as 
by the policy of rulers; but I venture to say, 
that in the causes of all such wars, during a 
century past, there has not been so much ma- 
terial for oifense as could be found every year 
in the fulminations of a party swaying the 
governments of many Northern States against 
the entire social and industrial systems of fif- 
teen of our sister states; so much to repel the 
opinions, to alienate the sentiments, and to 
wound the pride." 

.Jefferson's opinions and avarnixgs. 

Jefferson was a long-sighted statesman. 
He could sec as far into real party aims and 
purposes as any other man. He was perfectly 
acquainted with the party and its ultimate de- 
signs, that opposed the formation of our Gov- 
ernment, and when in later times the "Mis- 
souri question" was seized as a disturbing ele- 
ment, he comprehended at a glance the object 
of "throwing the tub to the whale," and in a 
series of letters he reminded the people of his 



46 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



forebodings of portending dissolution. On the 
12th of March, 1820, he wrote to H. Nelson: 

"I thank you, dear sir, for the information 
in your fovor of the 4th inst., of the settlement 
for the present of the Missouri question. lam 
so completely withdrawn from all attention to 
public matters, that nothing less could arouse 
me than the definition of a geographical line, 
which on an abstract principle^ is TO become 

THE LINE of SEPARATION OF THESE STATES, 

and to render despierate the hope that man can 
ever enjoy the tico hi ssings of peace and self- 
government. The question sleeps for the 
PRESENT, 6m< is not dead!'' 

On ♦he 5th of April, 1820, he wrote to Mark 
Langdon Hill: 

"I coniiratulatG you on the sleep of the Mis- 
souri question — I wish I could say on its death; 
but of this /despair.' The idea of a geograph- 
ical line once suggested, will brood in the 
minds of all those who prefer the gratification 
of their ungovernable passions to the peace 
and Union of the country!" 

On the 13th of the same month, he wrote to 
William Short. 

"The Missouri question aroused and filled 
me with alarm. The old schism 'of Federal 
and Republican, threatened nothing, because 
it existed in every State, and united them to- 
gether by the fraternism of party. But the 
coincidence of a marked principle, moral and 
political, with a geographical line, once con- 
ceived, I feared would never more be oblit- 
erated from the mind ; that it would be recur- 
ring on every occasion, and renewing irrita- 
tions until it would kindle such 7Hutual and 
mortal hatred, as to render separation preferable 
to eternal discord.' I have been among the most 
sanguine that our Union would be of long dur- 
ation. / now doubt it much, and see the eveiit 
at no great distance, and the direct CONSE- 
QUENCE of ih.\s question ! — not by the line 
wbich has been so confidently counted on ; the 
laws of nature control this ; but by the Poto- 
mac, Ohio, Missouri or more probably the Mis- 
sissippi upward, to our northern boundary. — 
My only comfort and confidence is, that I shall 
not live to see this, and I envy not the present 
generation the glory of throwing away the 
fruits of their father's sacrifices of life and 
fertune, and of rendering de-^parate the experi- 
ment which was to decide ultimately, whether 
man is capable of self-government. This 
treason against human hope will signalize their 
epoch in future history as the counterpart of 
the model of their predecessors !" 

He wrote to John Holmes, of Maine, April 
22d, 1820, as follows: 

"I had for a long time ceased to read news- 
papers, or to pay any attention to public aftairs, 
confident they were in good hands, and con- 
tent to be a passenger in our bark to the shore, 
from which I am not distant. But this momen-, 



tous question, like a fire bell in the night, 
awakened, and filled me ivith terror. I consid- 
ered it at once aJ/Af DEATH KNELL OF THE 
UNION! It is hushed, indeed, for the mo- 
ment, htit this is a repiieve only, not a final 
sentence. A geographical Line, coinciding with a 
marked principle moral and political, once con- 
ceived and held up to the angry jtassionsofmen 
WILL NEVER BE OBLITERATED, and 
every new irritation icill make it deeper and 
deeper! I can say with conscious truth that 
there is not a man on eavth who would sacrifice 
more than I would, to relieve us from this 
heavy reproach in any practicable way. The 
cession of that kind of property, (for so it is 
misnamed) is a bagJitelle, which would not cost 
me a second thought. A general emancipation 
and expiitriatton could be effected, and gradu- 
ally, and with due sacrifices, I think it might 
be. But, as it is, we have the wolf by the ears, 
and we can neither hold him nor safely let him 
go! Justice is in one scale and self preserva- 
tion in the other. * * * * * 
"I regret that I am now to die in the belief 
that the useless sacrifice of thousands, by the 
generation of 1776, to acquire self government 
and happiness to their country is to be thrown 
away by the unwise and unworthy passions of 
their sons, and that my only consolation is to 
be that I live not to iceep over it! If they 
would but dispassionately weigh the blessings 
they will throw away, against an abstract 
principle, more likely to be Union than by 
secession, they would pause before they would 
perpetrate this act of suicide on themselves, 
and of treason against the hopes of the icorld.^' 

Up to the hour of Mr. Jefferson's death 
this subject worked upon his mind, and caused 
him much uneasiness. It was the theme of his 
correspondence and of his conversation, for he 
saw in this agitation of the slavery question 
the seeds of early and certain dissolution. On 
the 20th of September, 1820, he wrote to Wm. 
Pinckney: 

"The Missouri question is a mere party 
trick. The leaders of Federalism, [the same 
leaders now] defeated in the schemes of ob- 
taining power, by rallying partizans to the 
principle of monarchism [as we have already 
charged] — a principle of personal, not if local 
division, have changed their tack, and thrown 
out another barrel to the whale. They are 
taking advantage of the virtuous people, to 
affect a division of parties, by a geographical 
line. They expect that this will insure them 
on local principles, the majority they could 
never obtain on principles of federalism; but 
they are still putting their shoulder to the 
wrong wheel — they are wasting jeremaids on 
the evils of slavery, as if we were advocates 
for it." 

What better proof could be needed to prove 
the position we have taken, as to the ultimate 
designs of the party, whose lineage we trace 
by the blood dripping from their feet? 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



47 



On the 29th of December, 1S20, he wrote to 
Gen. Lafayette: 

"The boisterous sea of liberty, indeed, is 
never without a wave, and that from Missouri 
is now rolling toward us, but we shall ride over 
it as we have all others. It is not a moral 
question, but one merely of power. It's object 
is to raise a geographicil principle for the 
choice of a President, and the noise will be 
kept up till that is effected. All know that per- 
mitting the slaves of the South to spread into 
the West will not add one being to that unfor- 
tunate condition — that it will increase the hap- 
piness of those existing, and by spreading them 
over a larger surface, will dilute the evil 
everywhere, and facilitate the means of getting 
finally rid of it — aa event more anxiously 
wished by those on whom it presses, than by 
the noisy pretenders to exclusive humanity. 
In the mean time, it is a ladder for rivals to 
climb into power. " 

On the 2Ist of January, 1821, and but short- 
ly before his death, he wrote to Joh.v Adams: 

"Our anxieties in this quarter are all con- 
centrated in the question: 

" ' Wliut tliKM the holy alliance, in and out of Congress, 
mean to do witli us on the Missouri question?' 

"And this, by the by, is but the name of 
the case — it is the John Doe, or Richard 
Roe of the ejectment. The question, as 
seen in the states afflicted with this unfortu- 
nate population, is. Are our slaves to be pre- 
sented with freedom and a dagger? For if 
Congress has the power to regulate the condi- 
tions of the inhabitants of the states within 
the states, it will be but another exercise of 
that power that a/^ aliall be free. Are we then to 
see again Athenian and Lacedemonian confed- 
eracies to wage another Pelooonessian war to 
settle the ascendancy between them, or is this 
the tocsin of merely a servile war? That re- 
mains to be seen; but not, I hope, by you or 
me. Surely, they will parley awhile, and give 
us a chance to get out of the way. What a 
bedlamite is man." 

On the 15th of February, 1821, he wrote to 

Gov. BREflKINKIDGE: 

"All, I fear, do not see the speck in our 
horizon [That "speck" is a heavy cloud now] 
which is to burst on us as a tornado, sooner or 
later. [That cloud has burst.] The line of 
division lately marked out between different 
portions of our confederacy is such as will nev- 
er, I fear, be obliterated, and we are now 
trusting to those who are against us in position 
and principle, to fashion to their own form the 
minds and affections of our youth. If, as has 
been estimated, we send ^300,000 a year to the 
Northern seminaries for the instruction of our 
own sons, then we must have there five hund- 
red of our sons imbibing opinions and princi- 
ples in discord with those of their own country. 
This canker is eating on the vitals of our ex- 
istence, and if not arrested at once will be 



beyond remedy. We are now certfiinlv furn- 
ishing recruits to their school." 

On the 9th of March, 1821, he wrote to 
Judge Roane: 

i 'Last and most portentious of all is the Mis- 
souri question. It is smeared over for the 
present, but its geographical deraark;ition is 
indelible. What is to become of it I see not, and 
leave to those who will live to see it. The 
University will give employment to my remain- 
ing years, and quite enough for my senile fac- 
ulties." 

On the 17th of August, 1821, he wrote to 
Gen. Dearborn: 

"I rejoice with you that the State of Mis- 
souri is at length a member of our Union. 
Whether the question it excited is dead, or 
only sleepeth, I do not know. I see only that 
it has given resurrection to the Hartford Con- 
vention men. They have had the address by 
playing on the honest feelings of our former 
friends to seduce them from their kindred 
spirits, and to borrow their weight into the 
Federal scale. Desperate of regaining power 
under political distinctions [that is their form- 
er political names] they have adroitly wriggled 
into its seat under the auspices of morality, 
and are again in the ascendency, from which 
their sins had hurled them." 

Thus has Jefferson left on record the po- 
litical consanguinity of the present party in 
power, by which we can easily trace their lin- 
eage to the old Hartford Convention, and the 
disunion purposes and aims of the old Fede- 
ralists. They started out in 1819-20, under a 
change of name, to work their way into power 
on the crest of slavery agitation, and as Jef- 
ferson expresses it, have "wriggled" around, 
under various phases of political cognomens, 
with varied success, until they have at length 
been successful on the sectional or geo- 
graphical issue thnt rang in Jefferson's ears 
as a "fire bell in the night'' — and as the 
"death knell of the Union." No matter ?t'Ao 
the individuals, the present ruling party ob- 
tained the ascendency on the same principle, 
that brought the Hartford Conventionists into 
power in 1820, through the final triumph of 
which the immortal author of the Declaration 
of Independence saw in advance, through the 
lens of prophetip wisdom, the Union expire. 

General Washington was President of the 
Convention that framed our Constitution. As 
he sat presiding over the deliberations of that 
body, day by day, he could not fail to have be- 
come acquainted with the peculiar views, aims 
and purposes of those who opposed the form of 



48 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



govei'Dmeat he ami his compatriots were en- 
deavoring to establish. He knew those men. 
He knew there was a powerful party at that 
early day opposed to the government established 
for he saw the evidence in the Convention, that 
sooner or later this faction who were opposed 
to the kind of government adopted, would seek 
to overthrow the Union, using the sectional 
slavery question as their Archimedean lever. 
He knew these things, and he felt he could not 
retire from office and go down to his grave 
without leaving the weight of his advice to 
check the mad passions of those who would be 
seeking every occasion to overthrow this gov- 
ernment;in hopes to build up one more to their 
liking. In his Farewell Address he said: 

"My countrymen, frown indignantly upon 
every attempt to alienate any portion of our 
countiy from the rest. BEWARE OF SEC- 
TIONAL ORGANIZATIONS!— of arraying 
the North against the South, or the South 
against the North. In the end it will prove 
fatal to our liberties." 

General .Jackson had the reputation of 
"seeing through a man at a glance" He 
knew there were a large class of malcontents 
who desired the overthrow of the Union, and 
like Washington and Jkfferson, he readily 
discovered the lever they would use. He knew 
the struggle when it came would assume a sec- 
tional phase, for by such pretext only, could 
the Union be overthrown. He has left his 
warning voice for us to ponder over. In his 
• farewell address he says : 

"What have you to gain by divisions and 
dissentions ? Delude not j'ourselves with the 
hope that the breach once made would be after- 
wards easily repaired. If the Union is once 
severed, the separation will grow wider and 
wider, and the controversies which, are now 
debated, and settled in the Halls of Legisla- 
tion, will be tried in the field of battle, and 
determined by the sword. Neither should you 
deceive yourselves with the hope that the first 
line of separation would be the permanent one. 
* -x- 7;- -;;- * Local interests would still 
be found there, and unchastened ambition. — 
If the recollection of common dangers, in 
■which the people of the United States have 
stood side by side against the common foe, the 
prosperity and happiness they have enjoyed 
under the present Constitution— if all these re- 
collections and proofs of comnion interests. 
are not strong enough to bind us together, as 
one people, what tie will hold united the warring 
divisions of empire, when those bonds have 
been broken, and the Union dissolved. The 



first line of separation would not last long — 
new fragments would be torn off — new leaders 
would spring up, and this glorious Republic 
would soon be broken into a multitude of petty 
States, armed for mutual aggressions — loaded 
with taxes to pay armies and leaders, seeking 
aid against each other from foreign powers — 
insulted and trampled upon by the nations of 
Europe, until harrassod with conflicts, and 
humbled and debased in spirit, they would be 
willing to submit to a domination of any mili- 
tary adventurer, and surrender their liberty 
for the sake of repose." 

Gen. Hakeison also early saw the disunion 
purposes of the Hartford Convention- Slavery- 
Agitators, and he warns us of the danger in a 
letter to Mr. Monroe, in 1820: 

"I am, and have been, for many years, so 
much opposed to slavery, that I will never live 
in a slave state. But I believe the Constitu- 
tion has given no power to the General Gov- 
ernment to interfere in this matter, and that 
to have slaves or no slaves, depends upon the 
people in each state alone. But besides the 
constitutional objection, I am persuaded that 
the obvious tendency of each interference on 
the part of the States which have no slaves 
with the property of their fellow-citizens of the 
others, is to produce a state of discord and 
jealousy, that will, in the end, prove fatal to 
the Union. I believe that in no other state 
are such wild and dangerous sentiments enter- 
tained on this subject, as in Ohio." 

Henry Clay, the cotemporary of Harrison 
and Jackson, and the political opponent of 
the latter, knew the haters of the Union would, 
on the first favorable opportunity seize upon 
the slavery question to further their schemes, 
and in a speech in Congress in 1839, he said: 

"Abolitionism should no longer be regarded 
as an imaginary danger. The Abolitionists, 
let me suppose, succeeded in their present aim 
of uniting the inhabitants of the free States as 
one man against the inhabitants of the slave 
States. Union upon one side will beget union 
on the other, and this process of reciprocal 
consolidation will be attended with all the vio- 
lent prejudices, embittered passions and impla- 
cable animosities, which ever degraded or de- 
formed human nature. * * * One section 
will stand in menacing and hostile array 
against the other. The collissions of opinion 
will be quickly followed by the clash of arms. 
I will not attempt to describe scenes which 
now happily lie concealed from our view. Ab- 
olitionists themselves would shrink back in 
dismay and horror at the contemplation of des- 
olated fields, conflagrated cities, murdered in- 
habitants, and the overthrow of the fairest 
fabric of human government that ever rose to 
animate the hopes of civilized man " 



SCRAPS FEOM xMY SCRAP-BOOK. 



49 



CHAPTER IX. 

EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE— WHO RESPONSIBLE, 

The Statement of DouRlas...IIi3 last Letter. ..Senator 
Ptigh's Statement. ..Endoi-sed by Douglas. ..Chicago Tri- 
bune wouldn't Yield an Inch. ..The Peace Congress... 
Efforts of Republicans to Hush it Up. ..Senator Chand- 
ler's " Blood-letting" Epistle, &c. 

And when the crash predicted by Jeffer- 
son, Jackson, Harrison and Clay had 
come — when the "tornado'' of the "geograph- 
ical question" which so much annoyed Jef- 
ferson, had burst over the heads of the peo- 
ple, to show that those who had caused it were 
bent on consummating their plans at the ex- 
pense of the Union, we quote the last letter 
written by Senator Douglas: 

" Washin'gton, Dec. 20, 18C0. 

"My Le.vr Sir: * * * You will have 
received my proposed amendments to the con- 
stitution before you receive this. The South 
would talie my proposition if the Republicans 
would agree to it. But the extremes, North 
and South, hold off, and are precipitating the 
country into revolution and civil war. 

"While I can do no act which recognizes 
or countenances the doctrine of secession, my 
policy is peace, and I will not consider the 
question of war until every effort has been 
made for peace, and all hope shall have van- 
ished. When that time comes, if unfortunately 
it shall come, I will then do what it becomes 
an American Senator to do on the then state 
of facts. Many of the Republican leaders de- 
sire a dissolution of the Union, and urge war 
as a means of accomplishing disunion; while 
others are Union men in good faith. We 
have now reached a point where a compromise 
on the basis of mutual concession, disunion 
and war, are inevitable. I prefer a fair and 
just compromise. I shall make a speech in a 
few days. 

"Yours, truly, S. A. DOUGLAS." 

Thus, by this testimony it will be seen that 
the "extreme" men of both l^orth and South 
held back, and refused terras of accommoda- 
tion, not — as we may reasonably suppose, from 
a long line of antecedents — that the northern 
extremists hated slavery more than they loved 
the Union, or the Southern "extremists" loved 
slavery more than they hated the Union — but 
in reality, because both factions saw in the 
then existing facts, the occasion for getting rid 
of the old Union. The Northern "extremists" 
declared they would "not yield an inch" and 
the Southern "extremists" would "not yield 
an inch" well knowing that the least mutual 
yielding would produce just what neither "ex- 
treme" wanted — a continued Union. 

During the pendency of the d'jliberations ox 



the Peace Congress, the Chicago Tribune thus 
defined its "position" ngainst any compro- 
mise. It was one of the "won't-yield-an- 
inchers:" 

'•Others may do as they please, but this 
journal stands where it has always stoOd. It 
concedes nothing that would weaken the North 
in her geat ti^umph over that infernal despotic 
institution which has debauched the National 
conscience, and now strives to emasculate the 
National courage. We surrender no inch of 
ground that has been won. Standing solidly 
on the Constitution and the laws; intending 
evil to none, but exact justice, under the Na- 
tional compact to all; animated by a perva- 
ding conviction of the sacredness of the cause 
in which we are engaged, we shall be content 
to do that which duty to God our country and 
ourselves demands, and trust the consequen- 
ces to that Power which shapes all things for 
the best; and this is the position in which the 
genuine Republicans of Illinois should stand, 
and these are the words which they should use. 
But whether they falter or keep on, our course 
is marked out." 

Senator PuGii, of Ohio, has put on record 
the following testimony as to what could have 
been done under a proper desire to save the 
Union : 

"The Crittenden proposition has been in- 
dorsed by the almost unanimous vote of the 
Legislature of Kentucky. It has been indors- 
ed by the Lagislature of the noble old com- 
monwealth of Virginia. It has been petitioned 
for by a larger number of electors of the United 
States than any proposition that was ever be- 
fore Congress. I believe in my heart to-daj', 
that it would carry an overwhelming majority 
of the people of my state ; aye, sir, and of 
nearly every state in the Union. Before the 
Senators from the state of Mississippi left this 
Chamber I heard one of them, who assumes 
at least to be President of the Southern Con- 
federacy, propose to accept it and maintain the 
Union if that proposition, couH receive the 
vote it ought to receive from the other side of 
the Chamber. Therefore, all of your propo- 
sitions, of all your amendments, knowing as I 
do, and knowing that the historian will write 
it it down, at any time before the first of Jan- 
uary, a two-thirds vote for the Crittenden res- 
olutions in this Chamber would have saved ev- 
ery state in the Union but South Carolina. — 
Georgia would be here by her representatives, 
and Louisiana, those two great states which at 
least would have broken the whole column of 
secession." — p. 1480,6-7(/ifl. 

To show that yielding would have saved us, 
we quote the lamented Douglas at an earlier 
period, while in his official robes: 

"The Senator (Mr. Pugh) has said that if 
the Crittenden proposition could have passed 
early in the session, it would have saVed all 
the states except South Carolina. I firmly 



50 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



believe it would. While the Crittenden prop- 
osition was not in accordance with my cher- 
ished views, I avowed my readiness and eager- 
ness to accept it, in order to save the Union, 
if we could unite upon it. I can confirm the 
Senator's declaration, that Senator Davis him- 
self, when on that committee of thirteen, was 
ready, at all times, to compromise on the Crit- 
tenden proposition. I will go further, and say 
that Mr. Toombs was also.—/'. 13S1 Globe. 

Judge Douglas said in a speech in the 
Senate, January 3, 1861: 

"I address the inquiry to the Republicans 
alone, for the reason, that in the committee of 
thirteen, a few days ago, every member of the 
South; including those from the cotton stafcs, 
(Messrs. Toomijs and Davis.) expressed their 
readiness to accept the pi'oposition of my ven- 
erable friend from Kentucky, (Mr. Ckitten- 
DEN,) as a final settlement of the controversy, 
if tendered and sustained by Republican mem- 
bers. Hence, the sole responsibility of our 
disagreement. The only difficulty in the way 
of amicable adjustment is with the Republican 
party. 

At one time it was lil^ely the Peace Congress 
■would aflfect some amicable arrangement to 
compromise and save the Union. Prior to this 
several Northern States had refused to send 
delegates to that Congress, but as some of the 
Administration States had, and their action 
was likely to compromise the Administration in 
a compromise for peace, the politicians who noio 
declare they don't believe in the Constitution, 
took immediate steps to break up, or defeat 
the purposes of that Peace Congress. 

Carl Schurz, then being East, telegraphed 
to Gov. Randall, of Wisconsin, to favor the 
move and to appoint him as one of the dele- 
gates (Schurz boasted of his opposition to 
Peace compromises) as it -'will strengthen our 
side.^^ 

For the same reason Senator Chandler 
wrote to Gov. Elair, of Michigan, as follows: 

'■Washington, Feb. 11, ISOl. 
"Mt Dear Governor: — Gov. Binham and 
myself telegraphed you on Saturday, at the re- 
quest of Massachusetts and New York, to send 
delegates to the Peace or Compromise Congress. 
They admit that we are right and they are 
wrong — that no Republican State should have 
sent delegates; but they are here and can't 
get away. Ohio, Indiana and Rhode Island 
are coming in, and there is danger of Illinois, 
and they beg us for God's sake to come to their 
rescue, and save the Republican party from a 
rupture! I hope you will send stiff-backed 
men or none! The whole thing was got up 
against my judgment and advice, and will end 
in thick smoke. Still, I hope as a matter of 



courtesy to some of our erring brethren that 
you will send the delegates. 

" Truly your friend, Z. CHANDLER. 

" His Excellency, Gov. Blair. 

"P. S. — Some of the Manufacturing States 
think that a fight would be awful. Without a 
little blood-letting, this Union, in my estima- 
tion, will not be worth a rush." 

These politicians cared nothing for saving 
the Union, but to "sai'c the Republican party'' 
was their great desire. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE MOTIVE FOR PRECIPITATIN(i A CONFLICT. 

Who Resiionsible fur bringing on a CI ish i.f Arras. ..The 
Admiuistiation resort to a " Trick" t.j Force the Rebels 
to Commence the Attack. ..Letterfi-oi:i tiie Hon. Harlow 
?. Orton...Hi3 charges of a " Trick" provt-d by Extracts 
from. ..The New York Times. ..Charleston Mercury. ..New 
York Ti ibune, (ic,...The United States Armada take no 
part to Relieve Major Andersoa... New York Post details 
the Trick. ..Radicals Prophesying an Ea^y and Early 
Victory. ..Seward's Promise to deliver up Sumter. 

It is not of so much moment now to ascer- 
tain the cause of the war as it is the motive. — 
The former cannot now be remedied, so as to 
effect present results, while by duly exposing 
the latter we may avoid its repetition for some 
lime to come, as the expose of FeJeral designs 
pi evented a disruption of the Union in 1814-16. 

LETTEE FROM JUDGE OF.TON. 

We cannot better illustrate the animus of 
the party in power to provoke actual hostili- 
ties., with a view of throwing the onus of war's 
inception on the rebels, than by copying entire 
the letter and "accompanying documents" by 
the Hon. Harlow S. Orton, Judge of the 
9th Wisconsin Circuit, to the Vrijconsin Pat- 
riot.^ as follows: 

"To TIIE EDITORS OF THfi PATEIOT: 

"The Journal, in its generally correct re- 
port of what I said in the recent Democratic 
Convention, says: 

"He charged that this war w.as brougM upon,the coun- 
try by the present administration in iiccor.iance with an 
infamous plot — a disgraceful politici! trick! That the 
sendiug of a vessel to Fort Sumter with the avowed ob- 
ject of sending provisions to the men in the Fort, was only 
a pretense, gotten up to provoke South Carolina to make 
an .attack ! to form an excuse for the administration to de. 
claro war! The party iu power would not hear to any 
terms of compromise," &c. 

"The general sense of what I said on that 
point, is perhaps sufficiently conveyed by the 
above report, yet much of the language used I 
respectfully disown. I said, in effect, that the 
inception of the war, (by which I meant the 
firing on Fort Sumter.) was the result of a 
trick of the administration. That the fleet 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



51 



with provisions and men was sent to lie off 
Charleston harbor, ostensibly for the purpose 
of reinforcing the Fort, but in fact with no 
such real design, but to provoke and induce 
the enemy to make their threatened attack in 
order to arouse and unite the North for the 
war. That the attempt to so reinforce the Fort 
at that time was in violation of a pledge given 
to the Southern Commissoners, that such an 
attempt would not then be made, 

"I pledged myself able to prove this charge, 
if it was denied. It has been denied, and I 
have been made the subject of much personal 
abuse for having made it. Two years is not a 
very long time to remember the important facts 
which make up the history of the present war, 
and it is remarkable, that a fact so well known 
and discussed at the time, and especially in 
Washington, and never then contradicted by 
by anybody, should now be denounced as worse 
than a falsehood. 

"Now for some of the proof. 

"The New York Times of March 11th, 1861, 
said : 

"The question of reinforcing Fort Sumter has been un- 
der consideration in the Cabinet, and it is understood that 
the question, whether or no, it is not desirable to with- 
draw all the troops except two or three men, rather than 
incur the bloodshed which will probably occur, before 
troops and supplies a:-e put into it, is now to be decided. 
The question has been under discussion in high military 
circles for some days. Gen. Scott advises that reinforce- 
ments cannot now be put in without an enormous sacrifice 
of life. He is understood to say, that we have neither 
militarj' or naval force at hand sufficient to supply the 
Fort against the threatened opposition, which it would 
require twenty thousand men to overcome. Besides, if it 
should initiate civil ivar, in addition to uniting the South, 
and overiuhelminr/ the Union sentiment there, in the waves 
of passion, it would require two hundred and fifty thous- 
and Government soldiers to carry on the struggle, and a 
hundred millions of money to begin with." 

"It is a fact of the current history of the 
time, that this discussion and under the advice 
of Gen. Scott, resulted in the unanimous de- 
cision of the Cabinet, that the fort should be 
evacuated, and the President's oi-der for that 
purpose was anxiously awaited and expected by 
the public for several days, and the people had 
generally acquiesced in the wisdom and con- 
ciliation of the measure. It was at this junc- 
ture that Mr. Seward, or some other person 
having authority, pledged the Southern Com- 
missioners that the fort would not be rein- 
forced, and this was communicated to the 
Southern rebel authorities. In consequence of 
this understanding, the Charleston Mercury 
proclaimed — 

"Sumter is to be ours without a fight! All will rejoice 
that the blood of our people is not to be shed in our har- 
bor either in small or great degree." 

"The fact that this pledge was given by Mr. 
Seward or some other member of the Cabinet, 
is charged in the last communication of the 
Southern Commissioners to the Secretary of 
State, and has never been denied oificially or 
otherwise. 

"So matters remained until the 5th of April. 
The New York Tribune of that date says: 

" Many rumors are in circulation to-day. They appear 
to have originated from movements on the part of the 
United States troops, the reasons for which have not been 



communicated to the reporters at Washinu;t.in as freely as 
the late Adrni'iistration was in the habit of imparting 
Cabinet necrets. There can be no doUbt that serious 
movemouts are on foot." 

"These mysterious movements were the dis- 
patching of eight vessels of war; with twenty- 
six guns and thirteen hundred and eighty men, 
between the 6th and 8th of April, with sealed 
orders for the south. On the 8th, information 
was communicated by the Government to the 
authorities at Charleston that they desired to 
send supplies to Fort Sumter by an unarmed 
vessel. They were informed that the vessel 
would be fired upon and not permitted to enter 
the port. On the same day official notification 
was given by the governmeat that supplies 
would be sent to Major Anderson, peaceably if 
possible, otherwise by/orce. On the 9th the 
Southern Commissioners were dismissed from 
Washington, by the Secretary of State declin- 
ing to receive them officially, but expressing 
great deference for them personally. On the 
10th United States vessels were reported off 
Charleston, apparently standing in for the, 
harbor. 

"On the 11th, preparations were made by 
the military of Charleston for an attack on 
the Fort, in anticipation of a forcible attempt 
on the part of the Federal fleet to supply it. 
On the 12th, after a demand for its surrender, 
the Fort is fired into, and the war is com- 
menced! During this infamous and cowardly 
attack upon the small and starved garrison of 
Sumter, the United States fleet is in sight, 
making no attempt to enter the harbor, or co- 
operate with the Fort, lying idly by, and wit- 
nessing the desperate and heroic yet useless 
struggle of the gallent Axdersox and his men, 
to defend his Fort and his flag against an over- 
whelming force of rebels, unaided and alone. 
The deed is done, and the bloody struggle of 
a relentless civil war has commenced! The 
Fort has fallen into the hands of the rebel 
states, and its guns turned against the Gov- 
ernment; and behold the effect. All party 
lines are obliterated, and the people of the 
Northern States, with one mind, and with the 
most patriotic impulses, rush to arms, to avenge 
the insult by fierce and bloody war. As Geu. 
Scott predicted would be the consequence of 
an attempt to reinforce the Fort, 'Civil war is 
initiated, the South is united, and the Union 
sentiment there is overwhelmed in the waves 
of passion.' 

"The Border States, hitherto reluctant, now 
make haste to rush into the whirlpool of se- 
cession, and join the Southern Confederacy. 
All pending eltbrts and measures for compro- 
mise are scouted and contemned; and a peace- 
ful solution of the sectional controversy is now 
rendered impossible. 

Since that time, I have never once ques- 
tioned the right and the imperative duty of the 
Administration to use all possible and adequate 
means to conquer and subdue a rebellion so 
causeless and wicked — only insisting that all 
the efforts of the Government to that end 
should be to restore the Union and maintain 
the obligations of the Constitution over all the 



52 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



states, and that -when this is accomplished, the 
war ought to cease, and this, I understand, was 
the unquestioned and universally conceded 
policy of the Administration when the war 
commenced, and by the unanimous action of 
Congress in the adoption of the Crittenden 
resolutions. But while using the highest degree 
of military force to coerce submission to the 
Government. and obedience to the Constitution, 
I have thought it not inconsistent with our high 
national character and the true dignity of the 
Government, to propose and constantly tender 
to the rebel states such just and proper terms 
of compromise of the sectional controversies 
out of which this terrible war has arisen, as 
might result in the speedy restoration of the 
Union, conscientiously believing that war 
alone, without mutual conciliation could never' 
restore it. With these views, I still insist that 
the inception of the war was the result of a 
trick of the Administration, and with the evi- 
dent design on the part of those whose policy 
has since been adopted in the conduct of the 
war, to sieze upon this terrible national ca- 
lamity as their long waited opportunity to 
abolish slavery, regardless of the fate of the 
Government. 

"I have already briefly stated the facts con- 
nected with the event — facts of history which 
none will deny, and it only remains to prove 
what were the real motives and designs, or 
what was the strategy or plan of the adminis- 
tration in sending a fleet to Charleston under 
the pretence or feint of reinforcing Fort Sum- 
ter. To prove that it was a mere feint or pre- 
tence, and that the designs were such as I have 
stated, I shall, for the present, adduce only 
the cotemporaneous statements of the tken 
most prominent and credible witnesses , then 
and now in the secrets, confidence and interest 
of the administration, and leave the contro- 
versy upon these points between them and my 
accusers. 

The New York Times^ of the loth of April, 
said: 

"TUo curtain has fallen upon thefiist act of tbo groat 
tragedy of the apce. Fort Suniter h.aa lieen surrendered, 
and the Stars and .Stripes of tlie American Republic give 
place to the felon flag of the Southern Confederates. . 

"The defence of the fort did 'lienor to the gallant com- 
mander by whom it was held, ai)d vindicnted the govern- 
ment under which ho served. Jiidginr/ frnm theresiilt, it 
doesnotscem to have been the purpose of the government to 
doanythinijmore. The armed ships which accompanied 
the supplies took no part in the contest. Whatever may 
have been the re.ason for it, their silence was probably 
fortunate." 

"The New Yoi"k Tribune of the same date, 
said: 

"The announcement tluit Fort Sumter was on fire, 
sounded like a knell as well as an impossibility. It causeii 
forebodings. ' Wh^re is the fleet f was on ail lips. That 
there had been some unlucky miscarriage as Vie public 
mind had conceived its oi/ec^i, was quite plain. Finally 
came the report that the Stars and Stripes would soon 
come down, and later, that they had actually given place 
to the flag of rebellion, in spite of doubts, and the strong 
inclination to disbelief, particularly of the statement that, 
notwithstanding the bombardment had continued nearly 
thirty -six hours, 'nobody was hurt' on either side, the 
feeling reached its climax. No comx>romise now with re- 
bellion, is the universal sentiment. Jf there were differ- 
ences before, there cannot be said to be any now." 



"The following article, of the same date, 
from the New York J'ost, I commend to those 
who'care to know the full magnitude and par- 
ticulars of the strategy, plan, or trick, which 
resulted in the first blow of the war. I quote 
largely from this article, for it is all pertinent 
to the issue. 

The Post said : 

"It is evident that Gen. Bcc^T has once more beaten the 
enemies of his country, by the more forcei of his admiralde 
strategetical genius. To do so, he has, as was necessary 
su_^rred not only traitors, hut lo;ial men to rest wider a 
misapprehension. lie who reads and compares carefully 
the dispatches from Charleston, Montgomery, and AVash- 
iui^ton in this mornii}g journals cannot avoid the gratify- 
ing conclusion, tliat that which looks at first blush like a 
disaster to the Government, is in realiti/, but the successful 
carrying out of an admirnlAe military plan. Before 
this, the traitors see themsdres caught in the iron toils. 
In fiict it seems to have sickened the Chief Traitor, Davis, 
already. For Montgomery dispatches relate, that when 
the news from CUarleston came, and the mob serenaded 
D.wis and Walkek, "the former was not well and did not 
appear." 

"The facts which tend to the conclusion we have pointed 
out may be summed up as follows : 

"Gen. Scott has been averse to the attempt to reinforce 
Fort Sumter. He saw that it would cost men and vessels 
which the Government could not spare just now. As an 
able General, he saw that Charleston and Sumter were 
points of no military importance, and would only need 
valuable men to hold if we took them — with no adequate 
advantage gained. lie saw that the two keys of the po- 
sition were Fort Pickens, in the Gulf, and Washington, 
the Capital. Ills plans, based on these facts, were at once 
laid. By every means in his power he concentrated the 
attention of traitors and loyal men on Sumter. He must 
have seen with infinite stisfaction the daily increasing 
force gathered at Charleston, vrbilo the Government lost 
no time in strengthening the capital. Eveiy hour the 
traitors spent before Sumter gave them more surely into 
the hands of their master To make assurance doubly 
sure, he pretended to leave Fort Pickens in the lurch. It 
was said to be in danger, when Scott knew that a formi- 
dable force was investing it. At last Washington waa 
reasonably safe. Forces now gathered. Once more our 
brave old General saw himself with means in his hands. 

"Then came the armament popularly believed to be des- 
tined for Sumter. 

"The Government said not a word — only asked of the 
traitors the opportunity to send its own garrison a needed 
supply of food. They refused, fearing the arrival of the 
Federal fleet — drunk and besotted with treason, and impa- 
tient to shed the blood of loyal soldiers, they made the at- 
tack. Scarce h.ad they begun, when they saw with evi- 
dent terror, ships hovering about the harbor's mouth; 
they plied their cannon in desperate haste; but no shij' 
came in to Anderso:<'s help. What was the viatter? 

" Made bold by the furious thirst for blood, they dared 
the ships to come iq, but no ship offered its assistance to 
Anderson. More, the guns of Sumter were only directed 
to the works of the traitors, and Major Anderson evident- 
ly tried to fire in such a manner as not to kill men. He 
did not even try a few bombs on the city, though it is 
certain, from a letter from one of his own officers, that his 
guns would reach beyond the centre of Charleston. What 
was the matter? Beauregard must have thought the 
Government officers both fools and cowards. When hij 
own b.iats were sailing unharmed about the harbor be- 
tween Sumter and Moultrie, bearing his orders, was it 
possible that the forces outside could stand apathetic 
while a brave garrison was being done to death? When 
the battle was to the death, would a shrewd officer neg- 
lect to divert his enemies' attention by firing his city? — 
If it seems mysterious to us, waiting on Saturday wit/i 
breathless suspense, it must have seemed incomprelicnsiblc 
to any cool head in the traitor camp. 

"Still no ships came in — and, in fact, the reports state 
that only three or four small vessels remained in the offing. 

"After forty hours,' cannonade, in which not one man 
is killed, Major Anderson, an officer of undoubted courage 
and honor, runs up a white flag, surrendered the fort, and 
becomes the guest of Gen. Beauregard. Le: no man hasti- 
ly cry traitor! He only obeyed orders . He made an hon- 
orable defence. He took care to shed no blood. "He gave 
orders not to sight men, but to silence batteries." 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



53 



"Mean, time, while the rebels are ignorantly glorifying 
the victory of five thousaml meu over eighty, whatrews 
comes from Montgomery? The telegraph in the hamls of 
the rebels save, Fort Pickens was reinfovcert last night.'— 
'It is understood that Charleston harbor is blockaded.' Xo 
■wonder the rebel chief was sick and went to bed. 

"The position' of affairs is this— Charleston is blockaded 
— Fort Pickens is reiuforcod by troops, ivhich the Irailurs 
foolishly beliepcd to^n- dcttimd for Sumler. ] Washing- 
ton is secure beyond peradventure. I'he traiiijrs have, 
vjithout the sli.'jhte.'^t cause, opened the iciir they have so 
long threatened. The country is roused to defend its as- 
sailed liberties, and gathers enthusiastically about the 
Government, and treason has been checkniated at the tirst 
blow ithas struck. Let them keep Sumter a few weeks.'' 

"The above article is copied into the "Re- 
bellion Record," as a part of the reliable his- 
tory of the ■war. 

"It ■will be seen that this article more than 
bears put the statement I made, and I trust 
those ■who have charged my statement ■with 
being false, will be fair and candid enough to 
read and republish the above article, that both 
parties may see some of the evidence upon 
■which it 'was based. I regret the necessity of 
taking so much of your valuable space to pre- 
sent the evidence of a fact that I did not sup- 
pose ■would be questioned by any one. The 
fact itself is only important in throwing light 
upon the designs of the party in power, which 
at first were disguised, but now openly avowed, 
viz: the ultimate destruction of the Union, hos- 
tility to all compromises, the violation of the 
constitution, a war of conquest, and the abo- 
lition of slavery, regardless of consequences. 
"11. S. OKTON." 

Meanwhile, the radical press were belittling 
the magnitude of the Southern discontent, 
and under the Syren song of a "nine days 
bubble," assured the people that this treason 
could be '"crushed out in thirty days." The 
New York Tribune said : 

"The nations of Europe may rest assured 
that Jeff. Daa'is & Co. will be swinging from 
the battlements at Washington at least by the 
4th of July. We spit upon a later and longer de- 
ferred justice." 

The New York Times said : 

"Let us make quick work. The 'rebellion,' 
as some people designate it, is an unborn tad- 
pole. Let us not fall into the delusion, noted 
by Hallam, of instituting a 'local commotion,' 
for a revolution. A strong active 'pull to- 
gether,' will close our work in thirty days." 

The Philadelphia Press said, that : 

"No man of sense could, for a moment, 
doubtthat this 'much-ado-about-nothing' would 
end in a revolt." 

The Chicago Tribune was for undertaking 
' the job itself. It said : 

"Let the East get out of the way. This is 

a war of the West. We can fight the battle, 

' and successfully, within two or three months, 

at farthest. Illinois can whip the South her- 



self. We insist on the matter being turned 
over to us." 

The Cincinnati Commercial said: 

"The West ought to be made the vanguard 
of the war. * * v.- The rebellion will 
be crushed out before the assemblage of Con- 
gress — no doubt of it." 

It is charged by Pollard, in his work on 
the Southern rebellion, and not denied, that 
Mr. Seward promised Judge Cajipeell, of 
the Supreme Court, that Fort Sumter should 
be evacuated to prevent war, but that faith was 
never kept in that regard. [See p. 47. 



■CHAPTER XI. 

PROGRESS AND EVIDENCE OF THE NORTHERN 
CONSPIRACY. 

The Radicals conspire to overthro^w the Government long 
before the Rebellion of 1861...DyU(iLAs' testimony on 
this point. .. Jonx Bro'K.v Raid originated in Kansas.. 
Col. Jamison's testimony. ..Col. F. P. Blair on the cause 
of the war... Abolitionists and Secessionists united. ..Mr. 
Seward's testimony. ..l^arson Brownlow on the designs 
of the Abolitionists. ..Thurlow 'Weed ou the ''Chief A;:- 
chitects" of the Rebellion... Aboliiionists of New York 
Invite Southern Secessionists to join them. ..Massachu- 
setts, for Disfolution in 1851. ..Also in 1856. ..Ben. Wade 
Declares there was no Union. ..Garrison's "Covenant with 
Hell''. ..Republicans of Green County, Wis., Pledged to 
"Revolutiojiize the Government''. ..Anson I'urlingamc 
fur a New Deal all Round. ..David Wilmot on Dissolution 
...Wendell Phillips again... Lowell Republicans for Dis- 
solution. ..Massachusetts Petitions for Dissolution... 
James Watson Webb for using "Fire and Sword"'. ..Bos- 
ton Free Soilers, 1854. ..Charles Sumner bound to Diso- 
bey law. ..The True American pronounees a Negro 
"Worth all the Unions on God's Earth'' — Another Mas- 
sachusetts Petition for Dissolution. ..Dissolution Resolu- 
tion by Anti-Slavery Society. ..Another from same 
source. ..Disunion again in Massachusetts. ..From Ked- 
mund's Speech. ..Wendell Phillips labors nineteen years 
to Break up the Union. .. Parker Pillsbury labored twen- 
ty years to destroy the Union. ..Stephen Foster dissua- 
ding young men from enlisting in this Unholy War, &c. 

Stephen A. Dotglas understood the secret 
designs of the leading Republicans, as well as 
any other living man, and he thus gave utter- 
ence to his honest convictions, in the U. S. 
Senate, Dec. 25, 1860: 

"The fact can no longer be disguised that 
many of the Republican Senators desire war 
and disunion,under pretext of saving the Union. 
They wish to get rid of the Southern states, in 
order to have a majoritj^ in the Senate to con- 
firm the appointments, and many of themtLiuk 
they can hold a permanent Republican major- 
ity in the Northern States, but not in the whole 
Union ; for partisan reasons they are anxious to 
dissolve the Union, if it can be done without 
holding them responsible before the people." 

"dates back of su.mter." 
Gen. Jamison, one of the Abolition mar- 
plots of Kansas, made a speech to his soldiers 



54 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



Oil the 22d of January, 1862, which appeared 
in the Leavenworth Conservative, in Avhich he 
shows that the firing on Sumter was not the 
beginning of ihe war: 

"For six longycars we have fought ii3 guer- 
rillas, what we are now fighting as a regiment. 
This war is a war which elates away back of 
Fort Sumter! On the cold hill side, in awamps 
and ferns, behind rocks and trees, ever since 
'54, we have made the long campaign. Away 
ofiF there we have led the IDEAS of this age, 
always battling at home, and sometimes send- 
ing forth from among us a stern old missionary 
like John Brown, to show Virginia that the 
world does move." 

COL. BLAIR ON THE "CAUSE OF THE WAR." 

Col. Frank P. Blair made a speech in 
Congress, on the 11th of April, 1862, and de 
nied that slavery is the "cause" of the war. 
He says: 

"Every man acquainted with the facts knows 
that it is fallacious to call this 'a slaveholder's 
rebellion.' If such was the fact, two divis- 
ions of our army would have supported it with- 
out difficulty; the negroes themselves could 
hare easily put down 25(?,000 slaveholders; but 
it is a matter of history that the slaveholders, 
as a body, were the last and most reluctant 
to join the rebellion." 

He thus states his theory of the rebellion: 

"It was the negro question, and not the 
slavery question, which made the rebellion — 
questions entirely different, and requiring en- 
tirely different treatment, and it is as neces- 
sary to understand the distinction, to enable 
us to deal with it successfully, as it is that the 
physician should know the disease which he is 
called on to treat and cure. If the rebellion 
was made by 250,000 slaveholders, for the sake 
of perpetuating slavery, then it might be a 
complete remedy to extirpate the institution; 
but if the rebellion has grown out of the abhor- 
ence of the ytcw-slaveholders for emancipation 
and amalgamation, and their dread of negro 
equality, how will their discontent be cured 
by the very measure, the mere apprehension 
of which has driven them into rebellion?" 

]mr. Seward's testimony. 
We have high cotemporaneous authority for 
the belief that there has existed a class ih both 
sections of our Union, anxious to destroy it, who 
have ever been experts in using the most con- 
venient jjrf^czi's to favor their ends. Mr. Sew- 
ard, in his dispatch "No. 287, confidential," 
to Minister Adams, thus ofi"ers his high testi- 
mony:* 

" Depari'ment of State, I 
WashiDgtoQ, July 5, 1861. J 

"Sir:— Your dispatch of June 28, (No. 176,) 
has been received and read by Earl Russell. 



The subject it presents is one of momentous 
import. It seems as if the extreme advocates 
of African slavery, and its most vehement op- 
ponents, were acting in concert, TOGETHER, 
to precipitate a servile war — the former by 
making the most desperate attempt to over- 
throw the Federal Union, the latter by demand- 
ing an edict of universal emancipation, as a 
Lawful, if not, as they say, the only legitimate 
way of saving the Union! 

"I reserve remarks on the military situation 
for a day nearer to the departure of the mails. 

"1 am Sir, your ob't serv't, 

" WILLIAM ir. SEWARD. 

" Charles Francis Adams, Esq.," &c. 

This expose of the designs of the "extreme" 
radicals was the cause of the Senatorial raid 
which demanded the removal of Mr. Seward 
from the Cabinet. But Mr. Seward had ex- 
posed nothing more than Washington, Mad- 
ison, Jefferson, Jackson, Douslas, and 
other great and good men had predicted. 

parson brownlow on the abolitionists. 

Parson Brownlow, in his debate with Par- 
son Pryne, in Philadelphia, in 1858, said: 

"A dissolution of the Union is what a large 
portion of the Northern Abolitionists arc aim- 
ing at." — See Braicidow and Pnjne's debates. 

TIIURLOW weed's EVIDENCE. 

Thurlow Weed, for penning the following 
truth, was, as he avers, driven from the edi- 
torial chair of the Albany Journal : 

"The chief architects of the rebellion, before 
it broke out, avowed that they were aided in 
their infernal designs by the ultra Abolitionists 
of the North. This was too true, for without 
said aid the South could never have been uni- 
ted against the Union. But for the incendiary 
recommendations, which rendered the other- 
wise useful Helper Book, a fire brand, North 
Carolina could not have been forced out of the 
Union. And even now, the ultra Abolition 
Press, and speech makers are aggravating the 
horrors they helped to create, and thus by 
playing into the hands of the leaders of the 
rebellion, are keeping down the Union men of 
the South, and rendering reunion difficult, if 
not impossible !" 

abolitionists unite with the seces- 
sionists. 
We are not left to the charge of Mr. Weed 
alone. We have the positive testimony of the 
Abolitionists themsehes that they were in 
league with the Southern secessionists. In 
1859, the Abolitionists of New York met in 
convention and passed the following resolu- 
tions: 

'■'■Whereas, The dissolution of the present 
inglorious Union between the free and slave 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



55 



States, would result in the overthrow of slave- 
ry, and the consequent formation of another 
Government, without the incubus of slavery, 
therefore 

'■^Resolved, That we invite a free corres- 
pondence with the disunionists of the South, 
in order to agree upon the most suitable meas- 
ures to bring about so desirable a result." 

Now, a simple reflection will thoroughly strip 
this pretended pretext of hatred of slavery, as 
the foundation of a desire to dissolve the 
Union, of its treasonable gause. If hatred of 
elavery induced the New York Abolitionists 
to believe a dissolution of the Union would 
"result in the overthrow of slavery," they 
could not be such fools as to believe they could 
make willing allies of those who insisted on 
slavery as the "corner stone of their edifice." 
Indeed, these Abolitionists had furnished the 
very best reason to the slaveholders for a con- 
tinuance of the Union, as the only means to 
save their "system." But hatred of slavery 
was not the moving cause of these Abolition- 
ists. They were secessionists, ^'er sf, and only 
used the slavery ghost to frighten unsuspect- 
ing and otherwise well disposed persons into 
their schemes. The "secessionists of the 
South" knew this, and hence they could agree 
to act together, not that they cared a straw 
about the slavery question, but only using that 
as the most convenient pretest for breaking up 
the Union. And so it was in 1814, when the 
secessionists of the Hartford Convention made 
opposition to slavery one of the corner stones 
of their disunion edifice. A large number of 
slaveholders went with them, well knowing that 
disunion, as the motive^ was in the background, 
and slavery, as the shiboleth or pretext, in the 
foreground. 

THE LATE GRE.iT NORTHERN CONSTIRACT. 

Having shown the wicked motive and the 
guilty occasion for war and seeession, which 
not only "dates back of Sumter," but dates 
back of our constitution, and have been de- 
veloping themselves for more than sixty years, 
we will now exhibit to the world the viodus 
o]?era7idi by which the motive was to be grati- 
fied, and the occasion fully developed. It will 
hardly be practicable in all cases to place the 
sayings, doing and resolves of the conspirators 
in chronological order, nor shall we endeavor 
to set down aught in malice or aught extenu- 
ate. The object of the authors of the follow- 
ing extract was no doubt to stir up and hasten 



that "Irrepressible Conflict," which Mr. Sew- 
ard predicted in his Rochester speech, and 
which is now upon us. 

MAS3ACUU3ETT.S FOK DISSOLUXrON IN 1S.51. 

In their State convention of 1851, the radi- 
cals of Massachusetts, on whom the mantle of 
the Hartford Convention had fallen, and ani- 
mated by the same purposes 

'•'■Rosolved. That the constitution which pro- 
vides for a slave representation and a slave oli- 
garchy in Congress, which legalizes slave catch- 
ing on every inch of American soil, which 
pledges the military and naval power 
of the country to keep four millions 
of chattle slaves in their chains, is to be 
trodden under foot, and pronounced accursed, 
however unexceiHionable or valuable, it may 
be in its other provisions." 

"That tlie one great issue before the country 
is the dissolution of the Union, in comparison 
with which allotherissues with the slave power 
are as dust in the balance; therefore, we have 
given ourselves to the work of 'annulling this 
covenent with death,' as eseutial to our own 
innocency, and the speedy and everlasting 
overthrow of the slave power." 

MASSA'cnUSETTS YOU DISSOLUTION IX lSc/6. 
In 185C the same party passer the following 
in convention: 

^'■Resolved, 1st, That the necessity of dis- 
union is written in the whole existing character 
and condition of the two sections of the coun- 
try in their social organization, education, 
habits and laws; in the dangers of our white 
citizens in Kansas, and our colored men in 
Boston; in the wounds of Charles Sumner, 
and the laurels of his assailants, and no Gov- 
ernment on earth was ever strong enough to 
hold together such opposing forces." 

-'■Resolved, 2d, That this movement does 
not merely seek disunion, but the more perfect 
union of free States by the expulsion of the 
slave States from the Confederation,- in which 
they have ever been an element of discord, 
danger, and disgrace. 

'•'•Resolved, 3d, That it is not probable that 
the ultimate severance of the Union will bean 
act of deliberation or discussion; but that a 
long period of deliberation and discussion must 
precede it, and here we meet to begin the work. 

'■'■Resolved, 4th, That henceforward, instead 
of regarding it as an objection to any system 
of policy, that it will lead to the separation of 
the States, we will proclaim that to be the 
highest of all recommendations, and the great- 
est proof of statesmanship; and Will support 
politically, such men and measures as appear 
to tend most to this result." 

BEN. WADE ON DISSOLUTION. 
In 1855 Senator Wade, of Ohio, made a 
speech in Portland Maine, in which he de- 
clared: 



56 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



'•There is really no Union now between the 
North and the South. I believe no two nations 
on earth entertain feelings of more bitter ran- 
cor towai'ds each other than these two portions 
of the Hepublic." 

"tue union is a lie." 
Mr. Garrison made a speech in 1856, in 
which he declared: 

'•I have said, and I say again, that in pro- 
portion to the growth of disuuionism, will be 
the growth of Republicanism. * * * 

* * The Union is a lie. The Ameri- 
can Union is an imposture, and a covenant with 
death, and an agreement with hell. ••' * 

* ■■■' I am for its overthrow. * 

* -■- * Up with the flag of dis- 
union, that we may have a free and glorious 
Union of our own." 

GREEN COUNTT, WISCONSIN, FOR REVOLUTION 

At a Republican convention held at Monroe, 
Green county, Wis., in 1856, the following 
resolution was passed: 

^'•Resolved, That it is the duti/ of the North 
in case they fail in electing a President and 
Congress that will restore freedom to Kansas, 
to revolutionize the govcrjiment!'^ 

A NEW DEAL ALL ROUND. 

Anson Burlingame made a speech in 1856 
in which he blasphemously said: 

'■The time is coming and soon will be that 
we must have an anti-slavery constitution, an 
anti-slavery bible and an anti-slavery God." 

DAVID WILMOT ON DISSOLUTION. 

The Montrose Democrat of May 10th, 1856, 



"We recollect a little over a year ago, that 
we heard Mr. AYilmot make the following de- 
claration: 

" 'I am determined to arouse the people to 
the importance of the slavery issue, and get 
up an organization through which they can get 
control of the Government in 1856. And if I 
become satisfied that these etforts -will fail, and 
that the people will not assert their rights, then 
I'll be d — d if I dont join the pai'ty that I think 
will send the country to h — 1 the quickest!" ' 

MORE treasonable EXTRACTS. 

"In conclusion I have only to add that such 
is my solemn and abiding coijiviction of the 
character of slavery, and under a full sense of 
my responsibility to my country and my God, 
I deliberately say, better disunion— better a 
civil or servile war — better anything that God 
in his providence shall send — than an extension 
of the bonds of sl:-,very." — Hon Horace 3Iann 

"No man has a right to be surprised at this 
state of things. It is iust what we abilitionists 



and disunionists have attempted to bring about. 
There is merit in the Republican party. It is 
the first sectional party ever organizedin this 
country. It does not know its own face, but 
calls itself national; but it is not national — it 
it sectional. The Picpublican party is a party 
of the North pledged against the South." — 
Wendell Phillips. 

'■'■Resolved., That the Union was established 
to secure the liberties of Americnn citizens. 
When it fails to do that, our only voice can be, 
let the Union be dissolved." — Lowell Repuhli- 
can Resolution. 

The Boston Liberator., in an article headed 
in large type — "But one issue — the dissolution 
of the Union" — recommends signatures to a 
petition for that purpose, of which the follow- 
ing is the spirit: 

"We therefore believe that the time has come 
for a new arrangement of elements so hostile; 
of interests so irreconcilable, of institutions; 
so incongruous; and we earnestly request Con- 
gress, at its present session, to take initiatory 
measures for the speedy, peaceful and quiet 
dissolution of the existing Union, as the exi- 
gencies of the case require." 

"If the Republicans fail at the ballot-box,we 
shall be forced to drive back the slaveocrats 
with fire and sword." — James Watson Wehhin 
1856. 

" Resolved, That Constitution, or ao Consti- 
tution, law, or no law, we will not allow a fu- 
gitive slave to be taken from Massachusetts." 
— Boston Free Soilers of 1854. 

"I have before declared that the path of 
duty was clear as to the fugitive slave act, and 
that I am bound to disobey it!" — Chas. Sum- 
ner, Sept. 18.34. 

The True American, a Republican organ in 
Erie county, Pa., in commenting upon a speech 
delivered at a Democratic meeting, said: 

"This twaddle about the Union and its pre- 
servation is too silly and sickening for any 
good effect. We think the liberty of a single 
slave is worth more than all the Unions God's 
universe can hold." 

The Hampshire (Mass.) Gazette of August 
23d, 1856. a Republican organ, published a let- 
ter from a citizen of Northampton, who was 
engaged in circulating there the petition for a 
dissolution of the Union, wherein he stated 
that— 

"more than one hundred and fifty legal 
voters of that town have signed this petition." 

ra-solution adopted on motion of Wendell Phillips, by 
the American Anti- Slavery Society, New York, May, 

1848. 

'■'■Resolved, That recognizing as we do, with 
profound gratitude, the wonderful progress our 
cause has made during the last eighteen years, 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



67 



and yet considering the effort now'making to 
impress the community "with the idea that the 
church and the land will abolish slavery by its 
own virtue, and that the parties are able and 
willing to grapple with the evil this society 
deems it a duty to reiterate its convictions that 
the only exodus for the slave out of his pres- 
ent house of bondage is over the ruins of the 
present American Church, and the present 
American Union." 

Resolution adopted by the Americiin Anti-Slavery Society, 
New York, December, 1S5S. 

^^ Whereas, The dissolution of the present 
imperfect and inglorious Union between the 
free and slave States would result in the over- 
throw of slavery and the consequent founda- 
tion of a more perfect and glorious Union, 
without the incubus of slavery, therefore 

^'■Resolved, That we invite a free correspond- 
ence with the disunionists of the South, in or- 
der to devise the most suitable way and means 
to secure the consummation so devoutly to be 
wished, 

Resolution adopted by the Esserx County (Mass.,) Ai.ti- 
Slavery Society, May Id, 1862. 

^^ Resolved, That the war as hitherto, pros- 
ecuted, is but a wanton waste of property, a 
dreadful sacrifice of life, and worse than all, 
of conscience and of character, to preserve and 
perpetuate a Union and Constitution which 
should never have existed, and which, by all 
the laws of justice and humonity, should in 
their present form, be at once and forever 
overthrown.'"' 

From Redmond's Speech, Boston. 
"Remembering that he was a slaveholder, he 
could spit upon Washington. * * So near 
to Faneuil Hall and Bunker Hill, was he not to 
be permitted to say that scoundrel George 
Washington had enslaved his fellow men?" 

From rbillips' Speech, same occasion. 
"Washington was a sinner. It became an 
American to cover his face when he placed his 
bust among the great men of the world." 

And again another time: 

"I have labored nineteen years to take fif- 
teen States out of the Union; and if I have 
spent any nineteen years to the satisfaction of 
my Puritan conscience, it was those nineteen 
years." 

From Parker Pillsbury's Speech, April, 1SG2, 

"I do not wish to see this government prolong- 
ed another day in the present form. I have been 
for twenty years attempting to overthrow the 
present dynasty. The constitution never was 
so much an engine of cruelty and crime as at 
the present hour. I am not rejoiced at the 
tidings of victory to the northern armg ; I 
would far rather see defeat, eto." 

From Stephen F. Forters's Speech, Boston, 1S62. 
"I hav9 endeavored to dissuade every young 
• man I could from enlisting, telling them that 
they were going to fight for slavery." 
5 



CHAPTER XII. 

PROGRESS OF TUE NORTHERN CONSPIRACY— 

(Continued). 

Charles Sumner Advises Nullification and Disobedience to 
the Laws. ..Claims the Republican Party a.s Section%), 
and suited to his Purpose. ..Greeley's Insult to the 
Flag: The " Flaunting Lie "...Is this an Abolition 
War ?... Testimony of Gov. Stone, of Iowa... Statement 
of M. B. Lowry... Phillips on Secessio.i... "Chicago Tri- 
bune and the Tax Bill. ..Extracts from a Massachusetts 
Pamphlet. ..Abuse of the Framcrs of the Constitution... 
Similarity between Northern and Southern Disunionisti. 

CHARLES SUMNEK ON NULLIFICATION. 

To show that Charles Sumner came hon- 
estly by his nullification and resistance-to- 
law doctrine, we present the following extract 
from his speech delivered at Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts, Sept. 7, 1854, just after the slave 
Anthony Burns had been rescued from the 
Boston mob, at which poor Bachelder was 
killed by said mob, while in the discharge of 
his duty, in guarding the prisoner. Mr. Sum- 
ner, among other things said : 

"But it is sometimes gravely urged that 
since the Supreme Court of the United States 
has affirmed the constitutionality of the Fuo'i- 
tivo act, there only remains to us in all places, 
whether in public station or as private citizens, 
the duty of absolute submission. Now, with- 
out stopping to consider the soundness of rheir 
judgment, aflirming the constitutionality of 
this act, let me say that the Constitution of the 
United States, as I understand it, exacts no 
such passive obedience, * * and no man 
who is not lost to self respect, and ready to 
abandon the manhood which is shown in the 
heaven directed countenance, will voluntarily 
aid in enforcing a "judgment" which in his 
conscience he solemnly believes to be against 
the fundamental law, whether of the Constitu- 
tion or of God ! * * * The whole dogma 

of passive obedience must be rejected in 

Avhatever guise it may assume, and under 
whatever alias it may skulk ; whether in the 
tyranical usurpations of king parliament or 
judicial tribunal."" 

He thus sets off the aims and objects of the 
Republican party just then organized: 

"To the true-hearted, magnanimous men 
who are ready to place Freedom above Party, 

and their party above Politicians, I ajipeal. 

(Immense cheering..) Let them leave the old 
parties, and blend in an organization, which, 
without compromise, will maintain the good 
cause surely to the end. Here, in Massachu- 
setts s large majority of the people concur in 
sentiment on slavery; a large majority desire 
the overthrow of the slave power. It becomes 
them not to scatter their votes, but to unite in 
one firm consistent phalanx, (applause) whose 
triumph shall constitute an epoch of Freedom 
not only in this commonwealth, but throughout 
the land. Such an organization is now pre- 



58 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



sented by this Republican Convention, ■which 
according to the resolutions by which it is con- 
voked is to co-operate with the friends of free- 
dom in other States." 

And this is the way he undertook to educate 
the public mind to the pitch of resisting the de- 
cisions of the Supreme Court: 

"But let me ask gentlemen who are disposed 
to abandon their own understanding of the 
Constitution, to submit their conscience to the 
standard ot other men, by whose understand- 
ing do they swear? Surely not by that of the 
President. This is not alleged. But by the 
understanding of the Supreme Court. In oth- 
er words, to this Court, consisting at present 
of nine persons, is committed a power of fast- 
ening such interpretation as they sec fit upon 
any part of the Constitution — adding to it or 
sub trading from it — or positively varying its 
requirements — actually making and unmaking 
the Constitution; and all good citizens must 
bow to their work as of equal authority with 
the original instrument, ratified by solemn votes 
of the whole people. [Great applause.] If this 
be so, then the oath to support the Constitu- 
tion of the Uni'cd States is hardly less offen- 
Bive than the famous "et cetera" oath devised 
by Archbishop Laud, in which the subject 
Bwore to certain specified things, with an ''&c." 
added. Such an oath I have not taken. [Good, 
good.] 

For myself, let me say that I hold judges, 
and especially the Supreme Court of the coun- 
try, in much respect; but I am too familiar 
with the history of judicial proceedings to re- 
gard them witn any superstitious reverence. — 
[Sensation.! 

He thus clinches the subject, by boldly set- 
ting up the purpose of the Republican organi- 
zation, to "overthrow the slave power" and 
"to open the gates ef emancipation in the slave 
States:" 

"To the overthrow of the slave power we 
are thus summoned by a double call, one polit- 
ical and the other philanthropic; first, to re- 
move an oppressive tyranny from the National 
Government, and secondly, to open the gates 
of Emancipation in the Slave states. [Loud 
applause.] 

"But while keeping this great purpose in 
view, we must not forget details. The exist- 
ence of slavery anywhere within the national 
jurisdiction — in the territories, in the District 
of Columbia, or on the high seas beneath the 
national flag, is an unconstitutional usurpation, 
which must be opposed. The Fugitive Slave 
Bill, monstrous in cruelty, as in unconstitu- 
tionality, is a usurpation which must be op- 
posed." 

With what huge delight must Ch.veles Sum- 
nek have heard the tocsin of war — as the 
natural and inevitable consequence of his par 
tizan raid on the South. With what avidity 



must he devoured the fruits (the war) of his 
pious labors. 

As an original proposition, with no constit«- 
tion to bind us, we should never have been in 
favor of the Fugitive Slave Law. But it was 
passed in 1793, by our fathers, in pursuance of 
a solemn, constitutional agreement they had en- 
tered into. W.\sHiNGTO\, the Father of his 
Country, President of the Constitutional Con- 
vention, and as President of the United States, 
signed that law, and gave it vitality. The Su- 
preme Court in many instances declared it to 
be enacted in accordance with the constitu- 
tion; and all good citizens were bound to yield 
to its requirements, whether they personally 
liked it or not. But, as we have seen, there 
was from the beginning, a powerful faction in 
our country, opposed to our Government, who 
were ready to seize the most favorable pretext 
to consummate their destroying object. As we 
have already seen this pretext assumed various 
shapes and forms— anything to cater to the 
prevailing whims of the day. The thing or 
idea that could produce the greatest "irrita- 
tion" was always in the vanguard. In 1798, it 
was slavery and commerce. In 1S12, &c., it 
was the array of the Agricultural against the 
Commercial States — Peace 'vs. War, &c. In 
1333, the "oppressive tariif of 1828" was 
held up, as the initiating pretext, and from 
that time till 1860 the most prolific of all "ir- 
ritations" — the slavery question — furnished 
the pretext. 

In all those quotations we have made from 
old, and latter-day Federals, and from their 
progeny, the Republicans and Abolitionists, 
we request the reader to particularly notice the 
great similarity in the animus and "style" of 
denunciation. 

When, in 1854, the slave Burns had been 
delivered at Boston, and put on board of a 
United States vessel, in charge of his claim- 
ant, in pursuance of that law which Mr. Sum- 
ner advised his followers to resist, though the 
supreme tribunal of the land had decided it 
constitutional, the New York Tribune., true to 
the instincts and purposes of the old haters of 
our Government, garnished its columns with 
the following poetical rhodomontade: 
TUE AMERICAN FLAG. 
fFrom the New Tork Tribune, 1S54.] 

All hail Vae flaunting lie! 

The st.irs look pale and dim; 
The atripes are bloody scars — 

A lie the vaunting hymn! 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



59 



It shields a pirate's deck I 

It binds a man in chains'. 
It yokes the captive's neck, 

And wipes the bloody stains! 

Tear down the flaunting lie; 

Half-mast the starry flag; 
Insult no sunny sky 

With hate's polluted rag ! 

Destroy it, ye who can; 

Deep sink it in the wares ! 
It bears a fellow man, 

To groan with fellow slaves! 

Furl, furl the boasted lie ! 

Till Freedom lives again. 
To rule once more in truth, 

Among uutrammeled men! 

Roll up the starry sheen, 

Cenceal its bloody stains. 
For in its folds are seen 

The stamp of rustling chains! 

IS THE WAR PROSECUTED TO ABOLISH 
SLAVERY? 

Mr. SujixER sounded the key note of revolt 
in 1854. The Abolitionists caught it up, and 
demanded dissolution, as we have already seen. 
The war followed, as naturally as that any 
any cfiFect/ollows a cau.'se Whether this war 
is being prosecuted with sole reference to abol- 
ishing slavery, regardless of what may become 
of the Union, shall not rest on our charge. 
We will introduce Abolition testimony. 

Col. Wm. Stoxe, the Governor of Iowa, in 
canvassing that state in the summer of 1863, 
in his speech at Keokuk, on the 3d of August, 
said: 

"Fellow citizens — I was not formerly an ab- 
olitionist, nor did I formerly suppose I would 
ever become one; but I am now, I have been 
for the last nine months, an unadulterated ab- 
olitionist. [At tins the abolition portion of his 
audience shouted loudly and cried out. 'That's 
it,' 'That's the way to talk it out,' 'Hurrah, 
hurrah!'] As a matter of policy, perhaps, it 
would have been more prudent not to have so 
publicly declared that I have become an abo- 
litionist; but, since I have said it, I will not 
take it back, and let those who don't like it 
make the most of it. [Again the old Whig- 
hating Abolition faction of his audience shout- 
ed most lustily, while a number of Republi- 
cans, in an under tone, were heard to express 
dissatisfaction.] 

"Fellow-citizens — The opposition charge 
that this is an abolition war. A'^^ell, I admit 
that it is an abolition war. It was not such in 
the start ; but the administration has discover- 
ed that they could not subdue the South else 
than making it an abolition war, and they have 
done so ; and it will be continued as an aboli- 
tion war so long ae there is one slave at the 
South to be made free. Never, never can 
there be peace made, nor is peace desirable, 
until the last link of slavery is abolished. — 
[Loud and prolonged cheers from the abolition- 
ists, while the republican Unionists muttered 
much dissent.] 



"Butler, Stanton, Burnside, and men of that 
stamp, I regard as true patriots ; but as for the 
copperhead democracy, I hold for them the ut- 
most contempt, and I would rather eat with a 
nigger, drink with a nigger, live with a nigger, 
and sleep with a nigger, than with a copper- 
head. [At this declaration in favor of sleep- 
ing, etc., with niggers rather than with the 
copperhead democracy, as he termed it all true 
democrats, the shouts of the advoc ites of negro 
amalgamation were loud and defiant.] " 

MoBROw. B. LowRY; an abolition State 
Senator in Pennsylvania, at a League meeting 
in Philadelphia, in 1863, said : 

"This war is for the African and his race. — 
The six hundred colored men who have recent- 
ly fallen, have elevated the race. For all I 
know, the Napoleon of this war may be done up 
in a black package. (Laughter.) We have no 
evidence of his being done up in a white one, 
as yet. AVhen this war was no bigger than my 
hand, I said that if any negro would bring me 
his disloyal master's head, I would give him 
one hundred and sixty acres of his master's 
plantation. (Laughter and applause.) Tho 
man who talks of elevating the negro would 
not have to elevate him very much to make 
him equal to himself" 

We might crowd a small octavo volume with 
similar declamations and admissions, but these 
must suffice until some one shall impeach the 
veracity of these revolutionists. 

In a speech by Wendell Phillips in 1862, 
he said: 

"Slavery had suggested secession, and it had 
a right to do so, for he, (Mr. Phillips,) be- 
ing a secessionist, believed that those people 
were the sole judges of what causes they had 
for revolution.'" 

While the tax bill was pending in Congress, 
a Washington correspondent of the Chicago 
Tribune said through that sheet: 

" The Tax Bill is slowly grinding through 
the House, in committee of the whole, and is 
one of the most telling anti-slavery documents 
ever devised by the wit of man. If there had 
been no slavery, there would have been no re- 
bellion, and of course no tax bill. Every man, 
woman and child in the loyal states must now 
commence paying for the luxury of having 
neighbors who own and flog negroes. There 
are none so poor that they can eseape this 
slavery tax — none so dull they cannot see what 
has caused it." 

This is the same species of argument as that 
of the man who shot his neighbor, and chan'ged 
the foult to the man who invented guiipf>='Ot 
Had th<;re been no powder the man '^^'Pre- 
have been shot. As slavery cj^ 
vious to the agitation b" '' 
to d« with it, wo''^ " 






60 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



ble to suppose that slaver;/ agitation was the 
cause of the war tax? 

For years, the disunionists of the North have 
manifested the boldness of a Cromwell, the 
assiduity of bcaTers, the cunning of foxes, the 
malignancy of Iscariots. Their money has 
been poured out free as water, in publishing 
and circulating Abolition tracts, speeches, in- 
flammatory and incendiary appeals — not to 
national honor and pride, but to the passions 
and hot bed sentimentalities that fester in the 
breasts of malcontents. In 1852, a series of 
pamphlets were issued for Massachusetts, en- 
titled, "The United States Constitution and 
its pro slavery compromises." From the "Third 
edition, enlarged," of this treasonable publi- 
cation we take the following: 

"If, then, the people and the courts of a 
country are to be allowed to determine what 
their own laws mean, it follows that at this 
time, and for the last half century, the Consti- 
tution of the United States has been, and still 
is a pro-slavery instrument, and that any one 
who swears to support it, swears to do pro- 
slavery acts, and violates his duty both as a 
man and an Abolitionist. 

"If, then, the Constitution be what these de- 
bates (the Madison papers) show that our fath- 
ers intended to make it, and what, too, their 
descendants, this nation, say they did make it, 
and agreed to uphold, then we affirm that it is 
'4;. covenant with death, and an agreement 
with hell,' and ought to be immediately an- 
nulled! No Abolitionist can consistently take 
office under it, or swear to support it. 

"To continue this disastrous alliance (the 
Federal Unioa) longer, is mcf(f«e.s«.' "We dare 
not prolong the experiment, and with double 
earnestness, we repeat our demand upon every 
honest man to join in the outcry of the Ameri- 
can Anti-Slavery Society — No union with 
slaveholders!^'' 

Speaking of the framers of the Constitution, 

it Bays: 

"Now, these pages prove the melancholy 
ftiet, that willingly, with deliberate purpose, 
ouf fathers bartered honesty for gain, and 
became })artners u-ith tyrants! that they might 
share in the profits of their tyranny. 

On page 145, the following occurs: 

"Fidelity to the cause of human freedom, 
and allegiance to God [the Higher law which 
Mr. Seward borrowed from the Puritanical 
fathers] require that the existing National 
compact should he instantly dissolved; that 
tecession from the Government is a religious 
and political duty." 

"What more did the South Carolina Nullifiers 
and Secessionists ever declare] What more 
have they ever done than to act upon this pious 



hint, and yet the authors of the foregoing have 
never been arrested by the powers that be, nor 
have they ever been denounced by those pow- 
ers or their backers. 

But while those fanatical disunionists were 
denouncing our fathers, for becoming partners 
with tyrants, and showing their proof for this 
charge from the Madison papers, they ought 
not to have neglected the important fact that 
it was mainly owing to the vote of Massachu- 
ctts and Fihode Island that the report of the 
committee of thirteen, and the voice of slave- 
holding Virginia and Delaware were overruled, 
and the slave trade, now pronounced piracy by 
the greatest Powers on the globe, was prolong- 
ed from 1800 to 1808. Yes, Massachusetts 
done this to "protect" her sordid shipping in- 
terest, on a plea of gain, and to have been con- 
sistent those Massachusetts Abolitionists, who 
now shout for the war, only because "it is an 
instrument in the hands of God" to confiscate 
the slave property at the South, purchased 
from the guilty slave importers of Boston — 
under that constitutisnal license, prolonged for 
eight years at the special request, and by the 
solid vote of Massachusetts and Connecticut, 
against the earnest protest of old Virginia and 
Delaware. Now comes Massachusetts and de- 
clares the consequences of her own crimes a 
cSiuse for dissolving the Union, after she has 
gone out of the trade ! 



CHAPTER XIII. 

DISUNION OF NORTHERN GROWTH. 

Disiinion began in the North. ..Admission by Wendell 
Phillips. ..The War brought on by the North as a Means 
to an End. ..The Kausa.s Imbroglio. ..Stimulated by the 
Radicals to Aid Secession and Disunion— Helper's "Im- 
pending Crisis" as a Means to hasten Dissolution. ..Mr. 
Seward Endorses its " Logical Analogies " — Treasona- 
ble Kansas War Meeting in Buffalo — Gerrit Smith and 
Gov. lieeder Stimulate the "Cause "...Beecheron Shoot- 
ing at Men. ..Charles Sumner admits the Northern Con- 
spiracy. 

DISUNION BEGUN AT THE NORTH, 

Wendell Phillips is the most honest and 
outspoken of all the Northern Disunionists. 
He does not hesitate to claim that this revolu- 
tion began at the North, and that it had a.pur- 
posem view, and i\x-;it purpose was dissolution 
— the means being the slavery agitation. In a 
letter to the Boston Liberator., July 21, 1863, 
he makes the following remarkably candid dec- 
larations: 

"The disunion we sought was one which 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK. 



61 



should be bcr/un bij the North on principle. * 
^■^ The agitation for such disunion, based on 
the idea that slavery is a sin, to be immediate- 
ly repudiated at every cost, was the most di- 
rect and effcctire way of educating the public to 
a stcn anti-slavery principle. * * Aboli- 
tion of slavery was our object, disunion our 
■weapon. [This reversed, would accord more 
nearly with the general purpose of Abolition- 
ists.] * * The North had the right of re- 
volution — the right to break the Union, and 
that such disunion would sooner end slavery 
than continuing under a Constitution that for- 
bade the North during peace to interfere with 
the slave systems of the Southern states." 

Here is a bold declaration that this war was 
of "right" brought on by the North, 
by the slavery agitation, so that slavery 
could be abolished, which could not be done in 
a state of peace. This admission covers the 
■whole ground, as to who is responsible for the 
■war. It admits as plain as language can that 
the slavery agitators drove the South into it 
with the avowed purpose of accomplishing in a 
state of war what they admit they could not in 
a state of peace. 

But, Ml'. Phillips leaves us nothing to 
guess, and in the following paragraph he gives 
us the Abolition reasons for stimulating war, 
as simiDle as a child would narrate a May-day 
exploit: 

"In these circumstances, the Abolitionists, 
who were not peace men, and had never as- 
serted the sinfulness of war, perceived that the 
war itself would produce an overwhelming na- 
tional opinion adverse to slavery, sooner than 
unj other agency. The manifestation war must 
make of the nature and designs of the slave 
power, ■would inevitably make every Unionist 
an Abolitionist. The need of the negro in the 
conflict W'luld destroy prejudice against color 
more speedily than any other means could, and 
his presence in the army would be the first 
step to civil equality. AVe saw that the preser- 
vation of the Union -would efficiently protect 
the negro in his transition to perfect freedom, 
and that the nation he helped to create, oiued 
him this aid, which is of vast importance. 
"As things stand, therefore, since the war: 
"1. The Union means liberty, and to save 
itself, must free the blacks. To uphold it in 
this struggle for existence, is the readiest way 
to convert the nation into Abolitionists. One 
year of such war is worth, for thi.'i purpose, 
twenty years of peaceful agitation."' 

This plan of inciting all the horrors of a 
civil -war as the best means to liberate the Af- 
rican and make him in all i-espects our equal, 
is certainly more ingenious than reputable. It 
is worthy the sinister purposes of the agitating 
authors of this war. Mr. P. continues: 



"The sharp sword of war kills or cures at 
once, and as God has linked success with jus- 
tice, we must be whipped into a people hating 
slavery, as their conqueror, or we must be suc- 
cessful, with justice for our ally — the negro 
our acknoivledged equal ajid brother! We see 
nevertheless, the use of our disunion agitation. 
If we did not fully convert the community by 
our cry, 'Liberty and justice are better than 
Union, ^ we so far leavened their minds, and 
wakened their consciences, that when the war 
came, the hour found them ready to accept the 
issue. When the question was put — the old 
Union, with slavery, or a new one without it, 
the people have been found far more ready 
than any man supposed, to answer, give us, at 
any cost. Union and freedom," &c. 

Thus, we have the admission that the Abo- 
litionists brought on the war to put down 
slavery, and then we have the Proclamation as 
a "military necessity" to put down the war. 
How easy and simple the proposition. 

We have ever regarded Mr. Ppillips as a 
talented, truthful, bold, fanatical, bad man. — 
When he tells us that he and his class have 
been endeavoring to bring on war and dissolu- 
tion we believe him, not because we want to 
believe him, but because his admission comes 
from one of that class — yea, its principal lead- 
er, who are now on trial before the great trib- 
unal of history as inciters, aiders and abetors 
of treason against the best human government 
ever established on this globe. 

THE KANSAS IMBROGLIO. 

We are to read the Kansas imbroglio in the 
light of Mr. Phillip's admission. That th 
unhappy state of affairs in Kansas was made 
to play into the hands, and aid the designs of 
the Northern disunionists and the Southern 
disunionists, we have not a doubt. 

It was unquestionaoly the purpose of South- 
ern "propagandists" to make a show of estab- 
lishing slavery in Kansas, not that advocates 
ot the "peculiar system" ever believed slavery 
would be either profitable or permanent, if 
established in that territory. But it furnished 
a coveted point to both sides for a "conflict," 
and while those politicians in the interest of 
the South played their role to the best ad 
vantage, and committed many criminal acts, 
that ought to "make the dogs blush," t4(6ir 
counterparts in treasonable opposition, "jump- 
ed at the chance" to stimulate their long 
cherished "idea," by precipitating the "irre- 
pressible conflict." Had even the agitators of 
the North been dictated by purely patriotic 



62 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



motives, there would have been no serious 
conflict, for the North having the means to fur- 
nish five to one of the emigration, could have 
voted down the Southern influx, and the North 
could have afi"orded to rely on its strength and 
wait for time to settle the matter. 

But the contest originated, as we have seen 
in the progress of our compilation thus far, 
over forty years before Kansas was organized 
as a territory. The contest began in 1798, and 
raging with unremitting violence up to that 
time, could not be abandoned by the haters of 
the ' 'league with hell, the covenant with 
death," in 1857-8. The abolition agitators have 
often "thanked God for the occasion which the 
Kansas imbroglio afforded to stimulate the 
cause." It was hoped by the secessionists, 
North and South, tliat Kansas would prove to 
be the rock on which the Union would split. — 
Each party of factionists and disunionists bent 
©very nerve to this end. Traitors in the South, 
under the guise of Democrat!, and traitors in 
the North, as members of the Republican or- 
ganization, furnished their "quota" of men 
and arms. Each party, anxious for the fray — 
both factions praying with impious fervency, 
that the "hour had come'- that should rend 
asunder the ligaments of Union. Christian 
men (?) and pastors of Christian churches (?) 
bundled off their frenzied partizans with the 
bible in one hand and a Sharpe's rifle in the 
other, and bid them God speed in the holy 
crusade. 0, that was a rich and exhilerating 
carnival, when the fires of civil discord were 
lighted by vandal torches — when the proud 
Romans went forth with a shout of brotherly 
hate (!) to prick the barbarian Persians with 
the javelin of holy revenge, that the empire 
might perish between them! 

The embittered feelings engendered by the 
Kansas imbroglio, was but the dawn of that 
abolition millenium which the agitators had 
prayed for for years. It gave them new life 
and hope, and they threw up their caps and 
shouted God curse the Republic. The fires of 
secession had been kindled, and it was deter- 
mined that no shower of patriotism should 
quench th« flames. New and inflamable mate- 
rial must be added, and the breath of denun- 
wation, with ten thousand bellows power, was 
employed to fan the flames of discord to an 
inextinguishable conflagration. Inflamatory 
speeches were made, denunciatory newspaper 
articles, and incendiary sermons and threats 



were sent broadcast over the land, to keep the 
fires of discord to a "welding heat." The 
Helper book, the most incendiary and exas- 
perating of all, was issued, not in the name of 
its real Northern author, but in the name of a 
purchased stool pigeon, who hailed from a slave 
state, so as to give point, piquancy and sting 
to its pages. We select some specimens from 
this book, which was endorsed and recommend- 
ed as a work calculated to have "great influ- 
ence on the public mind," by seventy-eight 
members of Congress, belonging wholly to the 
Ptepublican party. We quote as follows: 

THE "impending CRISIS." 

"It is against slavery on the whole, and 
against slave-holders as a body that we wage an 
exterminating war.' — p. 129. 

"Do not reserve the strength of your arms 
until you have been rendered powerless to 
strike. 

"We contend, moreover, that slave-holders 
are more criminal than common murderers.' — 
p. 140. 

"But it is a fact, nevertheless, that all slave 
holders are under the shield of a perpetual li- 
cense to murder.' — p. 144. 

"Against this army for the defence and pro- 
pagation of slavery, we think it will be an easy 
matter — independent of the nef/roes,icho in nine 
cases out of ten would be delighted at the op- 
portunity to cut their master^s throats, and 
without accepting a single recruit from either 
of the free States, England, France or Ger- 
many — to muster one at least three times as 
large, and far more respectable, for its extinc- 
tion.'— p. 147. 

"But we are wedded to one purpose, from 
which no earthly power can divorce us. We 
are determined to abolish slavery at all haz- 
ards.' — p. 149. 

"Now is the time for them to assert their 
right and liberties; never before was there such 
an appropriate period to strike for freedom in 
the South.'— p. 153. 

"Not to be an abolitionist is to be a wilful 
and diabolical instrument of the devil.' — p. 368. 

"No man can be a true paoi-iot withour; first 
becoming an abolitionist.' — p. 116. 

"Small pox is a nuisance; strychnine is a 
nuisance; mad dogs are a nuisance; slavery is 
a nuisance; and so are slave breeders; it is our 
business, nay it is our imperative duty to abate 
nuisances; we propose therefore, with the ex- 
ception of strychnine, to exterminate this cat- 
alogue from beginning to end.' — p. 130. 

"Foam, sirs, fret, foam' prepare your weap- 
ons, threaten, strike, shoot, stab, bring on civil 
war, dissolve the Union; nay, annihilate the 
solar system if you will — do all this, more, 
less, better, worse, anything — do what you will 
sirs, you neither foil nor intimidate us; our 
purpose is as firmly fixed as the eternal pillars 
of heaven; we have determined to abolish slav- 
ery, and so help us God, abolish it we will! — 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



63 



Take this to bed with you to-night^^sirs, and 
think about it, and let us know how you feel- 
to-morrow morning." ' 

Mr. Seward, the author, in this country.of the 
"irrepressible conflict" doctrine give it the 
weight of his great influence as follows: 

"AUBUKN, N. Y., June 28. 18.57. 
"Gentlemkn: — I have received from you a 
copy of the recent publications, entitled the 
"Impending Crisis of the South," and have 
read it with deepest attention — it seems to me 
a work of great merit; rich, yet accurate in 
statistical information, and logical in analogies; 
and I do not doubt that it will exert a great in- 
fluence on the public mind, in favor of truth 
and juctice. 

"I am gentlemen, very respectfully, 

■"W. II. SKWAKD." 

THE KANSAS IMBROGLIO A PART OF THE 
SCHEME. 

Can any one doubt the truth and sincerity of 
Mr. PxiiLLirs, after reading this, and know- 
ing the fact that it was publicly endorsed by 
nearly every Republican member of Cc ngress, 
that war and disunion was from that day to be 
the "weapon'' to accomplish what Mr. P. says 
could not be consummated in peace? 

The Republican partizans were holding 
meetings in all parts of the country to organ- 
ize for a civil war in Kansas. Many of their 
leaders were reticent and cautious about ad- 
missions that should give a clue to their real 
purposes, but there were others who made no 
secret of their intentions and objects. Among 
this class we select the following from the pro- 
ceedings of a public meeting held in Buffalo, 
N. Y., wherein Gov. Reeder (then late of 
Kansas) and Garrit Smith acted as colpor- 
teurs of the Republican party in raising funds 
to carry on a civil war in Kansas: 

"Mr. Smith continued to speak of the ag- 
gressions of the South, and said he only hoped 
to hear of a collision at the South, and said he 
only hoped to hear of a collision at Topeka; 
that he only desired to hear of a collision with 
the Federal troops, and that northern men had 
fallen; and then he would hear of Northern 
states arraying themselves against the Federal 
Government. And would that be the end? No; 
Missouri would be the next battle field, and 
then slavery would be driven to the wall. Her 
strength is only apparent; it consists half in 
Northern cowards and doughfiices. It has 
been brave and rampant only because the 
North has fled before it. It will run when the 
North faces it. He believed the time had come 
to use physical force." 

"Gov. Reeder read to the convention the 
report from Kansas, of the dispersion of the 



Territorial Legislature by Colonel Sumner, and 
remarked, at the close that he was sorry that 
the Legislature had not waited till driven out 
at the point of the bayonet." (Cheers.) 

''Mr. L. R. NoELE asked how many troops 
there were belonging to the United Stitcs in 
Kansas? 

"Gov. Reeder said about 600. 

"Mr. NouLE — And how many in the entire 
army of the United States? 

'"Governor Reeder — I believe l-'-.OOO. 

"Mr. Noble — I learn from a friend near 
me, that they can't send more than 10,000 men 
into Kansas; and so I say let us go on. 

"Gerrit Smith desired to see the contri- 
butions continued. 

"A delegate said he would give 100 men who 
did not fear the devil, and who, like Crom- 
well, would praise God and keep their powder 
dry. 

"Gerrit Smith thought funds were wanted 
first, and hoped to see the subscription go on. 
He urged in several speeches that the time had 
come when it was necessary to use physical 
force. 

"To this Governor Reeder replied that he 
was not in favor of waiting because they had 
not received tvrongs enough^ but thought it 
right to wait until thej could st7-ike an effective 
blow. If it remained with him to use the 
power of the Government, he would not have 
waited thus long, but the oppressors before 
this would have been converted into heaps of 
dead men on the fields of Missouri. But he 
was willing to wait until to-morrow, or two to- 
morrows. When on the trail of the enemy, 
against whom he had a deadly hate, he would 
follow him with cat-like tread, and would not 
strike until he could strike him surely dead. 
He was, therefore, willing to wait until they 
had the power he would thus have used. He 
did not wish to give the South notice of their 
intentions by marcning armed men into the 
Territory. The dragoons could go in as voters, 
or to cultivate the soil, and strike when the 
right time arrived. When the time came to 
strike, he wanted the South to have the first 
notice of the blow in the blow itself." 

About this time Mr. Giddings is reported 
to have said : 

"I look forward to the day when I shall see 
a servile insurrection at the South. When the 
black man supplied with British bayonets, and 
commanded by British officers, shall wage a 
war of extermination against the whites — when 
the master shall see his dwelling in flames, 
and his hearth polluted, and though I may not 
mock at their calamity, and laugh when their 
fear cometh, yet I shall hail it as the dawn of 
a political millenium." 

Henry Ward Beechee, in presenting a 
Sharpe's rifle to one of his Kansas proteges., 
said : 

"It is a crime to shoot at a man and not hit 
him." 



64 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE JOHN EROWX T.AID -ENDORSED BY THE RE- 
rUBLICANS. 

Sewani, Hale and Wilson Toasted by the LonisTille " Jour- 
nal" for not exposing the John Brown Raid. ..John 
Brown's operations a part of the Dissolution Scheme... 
Numerous Extiacts to prove that Republicans endorsed 
the John Brown Raid...Repulilican Press, Clergy and 
Orafors endorse it... From "La Crosse Republican"... 
Rev. De Los Love. ..Rev. E. D. Wheelock..." Milwaukee 
Sentinel "..."Elkhorn Independent"..." Janesvihe Ga- 
zette "...Telegraphic Despatches, 1859... •' Winsted Her- 
ald "...Speech of J. W. Phillips. ..Laconic Letter and 
Reply, between Elder Spooner and an Editor. ..Massa- 
chusetts Resolution. ..Meeting in Rockford, 111.. ..100 
Guns Fired in Albany, N. Y.... Theodore Parker's For- 
mula. ..Indiicnation Meeting in Milwaukee : their ]5eso- 
lutions, etc."... Rev. Geo. W. Bassett, of 111. ...Telegram 
from J^ew York. ..Horace Greeley on John Brown — 
"Milwaukee Free Democrat "...Speech of Rev. Mr. 
Stajdes, Milwaukee. ..Emerson at Tremont Temple. ..Rev. 
M. l\ Kinney..." Meuasha Conservator "..."Milwaukee 
Atlas "..." New York Tribune "..." Wood County (Wis.) 
Keporter"...A Prophetic Article from the "New York 
Herald "...Brown's Character in Kansas, by the " Her- 
ald of Freedom " — General Conclusions, &c. 

THE JOHN BROWN EAID — A PART OF THE 
PROGRAMME. 

We have the statement of Col Jamison, 
(Abolitionist), that Kansas was employed as a 
nursery for disunion, for he tells us (see ex- 
tract from his speech on page — } that John 
Brown had been sent from Kansas to Harper's 
Ferry. 

The Northern sesessionist, Mr. Phillips 
tells us, finding it impossible to abolish slavery 
in peace, sought to inaugurate a war, as the 
only means to secure this object. Take their 
conduct in this, step by step, from beginning 
to the end — from first to last, — and it all looks 
like husi7iess. They went to work as though 
they intended to accomplish their purpose. — 
They knew that to make hornets "fighting 
mad," they must be violently disturbed. The 
Kansas imbroglio had not sufficiently madden- 
ed Achilles to make a counter attack on Hec- 
tor, and something else was necessary to j^ro- 
t'O^e hostilities. Yes, this is the word under 
Mr. Phillip's and Colonel Jamison's decla- 
rations, none other will answer. 

Charles Sumner, in a speech delivered be- 
fore the Young Men's Pi.epublican Union of 
New York, Nov. 27, 1861, says: 

"Alas, it is ourselves that have encourged 
the conspiracy, and made it strong. * * 
While professing to uphold the Union we have 
betrayed it. It seems now 'leyond question 
that the concessionists of the North have from 
the beginning, played into the hands of the 
Secessionists ef the South." — p. 9. 

That John Brown was equipped and sent 
to Virginia by the Abolitionists to stir up civil 
\Tar, with a view to hasten the crisis, we have 



abundant evidence from the treasonable mut- 
terings of those who rang bells on the day he 
expiated his crimes, and canonized him as a 
martyr, whose "soul is marching on." That 
leading and influential Abolitionists were made 
acquainted with his designs at Harper's Ferry 
before the shameful cmeute took place, is abun- 
dantly in proof. Forbes, a compatriot of John 
Brown, and who from some spleen of disap- 
pointment "blowed" on his bloody preceptor, 
was a witness before the Senatorial Committee 
that investigated the Harper's Ferry affair. 
This Forbes testified that he had forewarned 
Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, and others 
of Rrown's nefarious purposes, and still Wil- 
son kept the matter from the public. — [5ee 
Report of Senate Investigating Committee. 

THE LOUISVILLE JOURNAL'S EXPOSITION. 

The following article from the Louisville 
Journal., at the time of the Congressional ex- 
posure, shows that not only Messrs. Wilson, 
Hale. Seward and other leading Republi- 
cans foreknew the purposes of Brown, but 
that they kept the knowledge from the public, 
for reasons which all may readily divine. Many 
of the Journal's suggestions have since been 
reduced to history: 

"We are now prepared to comprehend the 
general character and extent of the disclo- 
sures which Forbes made to Mr. Seward in 
the interview before mentioned Forbes, it 
will be observed, had two separate and distinct 
grounds of complaint against the 'humanita- 
rians,' as he somewhat loosely terms the Abo- 
litionists, seeing that he is a man of culture 
and intelligence: — namely, first, the necessi- 
ties of his family, consequent, as he alleged on 
the failure of the 'humanitarians' to redeem 
their engagements to liim, [Forbes, be it re- 
membered, was one of the John Brown 
guard, and 'blowed' on that band of assassins 
he had been associated with, because they 
neglected sundry money obligations] and sec- 
ondly, the rejection of his plan by the perfid- 
ious 'humanitarians,' and their adoption of 
'John Brown's project,' including 'the cotton 
speculation.' These arc grievances for there- 
dress of which Forbes desired to enlist the 
favor and influence of Seward and Hale. 
These are the crooked things which he wanted 
them to 'put straight.' The scope and force of 
the language in which he describes his respec- 
tive interviews with them is now not only obvi- 
ous, but unmistakable. 'Having made several 
ineffectual attempts,' he says, 'to get a quiet 
conversation with Senator Joen P. Hale, of 
New Hampshire, I met him accidentally on 
Sunday morning. I could not then enter into 
the details of John Brown's project, there- 
fore I confined myself to explaining the urgen- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



65 



cy of sending my family relief." He could 
touch upon only a part of his grievances. Not 
so in his more deliberate interview with Mr. 
Seward. In that he touched fully upon the 
entire burden of his complaint. '/ 7ve7it' he 
says Hiito the u-hole matter, in all its hearings.^ 
What now is left to inference or doubt? As- 
suming the genuineness of these developments, 
which we believe is not impeached, even by 
those most nearly concerned, it is an offense to 
reason, an insult to common sense, a gross 
violence to the constitution of the human mind, 
to ask one to believe that 31r. Seward wa.f not 
thoronghlij cognizant of the blood;/ and de- 
moniacal scheme ivhich old Jouy Brown and 
his fellow conspirators were meditating. He 
did know it all. The conclusion is inevitable!" 

REPUBLICAN ENDORSEMENT OF THE JOHN 
BROWN RAID. 

As accumulative proof that the Republican 
party generally, if they did not plan or con- 
nive at the JouN Brown raid, for the purprse 
of'bringiug on a civil war — if they were not 
accessories before the fact, they were certainly 
and clearly after — we present the following 
testimony. Our witnesses are principally from 
Wisconsin, as the most convenient at hand, but 
their evidence is similar to the general mnss 
of Republicans throughout the North. 

In 1859, the Rev. W. De Loss Love, an or- 
thodox Abolitionist of Milwaukee, preached a 
thanksgiving sermon in the Spring street Con- 
gregational Church, "on the death of John 
Brown, in which occurs these sentences: 

"In Kansas was sown the seed of the out- 
break at llarper''s Ferry! * * If, indeed, 
you had power to revolutionize a nation, or all 
nations, and extinguish slavery at a blow, and 
plant society afterwards on a peaceable and 
sure foundation, doubtless you, as a people, 
should do it! * * John Brown may die 
on a gallows, but his name will be embalmed 
in millions of hearts. * '■'• 

" 'The jioorl lie has iloiic 
\ViU live after hiiii.' * • 

"The world will attribute the blood of John 
Brown, not to Justice, but to those \sfho shod 
the felood of his children. The blood of both 
father and sons will cry out against them from 
the ground." 

"But thanks to God, several thousand are 
yet left in this Israel that hare not bowed their 
knees to Baal nor prostituted their lips to kiss 
the rod of slavery. From these let your hopes 
arise, that our land will yet be redeemed from 
her insolvency," &c. 

The Fort Atchison (Wis.) Standard, in. its 
first issue after the execution of Brown, thus 
blended its grief with its treason : 

"John Beown Dead. — The first act in the 



tragedy has been performed. The great State 
of Virginia has played the hangman's part, 
and is crowned with its bloody honors. A 
telegraphic message was received at Janesville 
yesterday afternoon, stating that Broavn was 
hung at Charleston, at a quarter past 11, A. M. 
For an hour previous to the arrival of the in- 
telligence at this place, the bell was tolled sad- 
ly in anticipation of the event ! No mercy was 
expected for the victim of southern vengeance. 
But the end is not yet. Troops cannot check 
the flow of sympathy that surges over the 
land. A wall of bayonets may guard the hid- 
eous bastile of cruelty and wrong, but cannot 
obstruct themarch of the free legions that will 
spring forth from their slumber, and make the 
earth tremble beneath their tread! 

"Now, may God help the right ! and give us 
tongues of fire, and hands that shall never 
weary, to rvage an eternal crusade against the 
diabolical sin of slavery. 

"Peaceful be the sleep of the murdered 
Bkown, and glorious his awakening." 

The above was draped in mourning to show 
the deep sorrow of the editor for the death of 
the diabolical murderer. 

"If the decree of the court is fulfilled, Vir- 
ginia will commit a crime in the murder of 
John Brown to-day, which will result in anoth- 
er step towards bringing to the light the dark 
blot upon the American Republic." — LaCrosse 
(Wis.) Republican, Dec. 2, 1859. 

"One such man makes total depravity im- 
possible, and proves that American greatness 
died not with Washington ! The gallows from 
which he ascends into Heaven, will be in our 
politics, what the cross is in our religion — the 
sign and symbol of supreme self-devotedness, 
— and from his sacrificial blood, the temporal 
salvation cf four millions of our peojile shall 
yet sprinq! On the second day of December 
he is to be strangled in a Southern prison, /or 
obeying the Sermon on the Mount. But, to be 
hanged in Virginia, is like being crucified in 
Jerusalem — it is the last tribute which she pays 
to Virtue!''' — Extract from Sermon of Rev. E. 
D. Wheelock, of Dover, N. //., on the execu- 
tion of John Brown. 

"The Hangman's Day. — To-morrow, the 
2d day of December, 1859, is to become mem- 
orable in history for the martyrdom of John 
Brown! The State of Virginia, represented 
by Gov. Wise, and the United States of Amer- 
ica, 'the home of the free and the land of the 
brave,' represented by President Buchanan, 
are to see the effectual hanging of "Ossawata- 
niie.' Some twenty-five hundred State and 
Federal troops will assist in the ceremony. No 
one is to come within earshot of the dying 
martyr. No 'Northerner' will be permitted to 
record his parting words. But, in spite of all 
precautions, they will be heard, read and re- 
membered by millions of freemen, whose 
hatred of oppression, injustice and tyranny, 
in every form, will be intensified by the events 
of this black Friday. The bell that tolls for 



66 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



the departing spirit of John Brown, tvill ring 
the knell of American Slavery."^ — Milwaukee 
(Wis.) Sentinel, Dec. \st 1859. 

"The moral effect of the hanging of Brown 
will be to bring the hideousness of slavery 
home to thousands who were indifferent before. 
A thousand abolitionists will spring up for 
every one that is hung, and the 'irrepressible 
. conflict' will go on until the institution of 

slavery is rooted out of the Union. The Union 
may he dissolved, but slavery must die! and if 
it can only die or be restricted to its present 
limits, tlirough a dissolution of the Union, 
then in the name of the framers of the Union, 
who made it to secure the blessings of liberty, 
let the Union he dissolved.' .'^' — Elkhorn (Wis.) 
Independent, 1859. 

"Even if Brown is guilty of all that is 
charged against him, his bravery, magnanimi- 
ty, and fortitude wins the respect of the gener- 
ous, everywhere." — Janesville (AVis.) Gazette, 
1859. 

A telegraphic dispatch, dated Manchester, 
N. H., Dec. 2, 1859, said: 

"An attempt was made to toll the City Hall 
bell to-day, in commemoration of John Brown. 
The bell was only struck a few times, when 
Mayor Harrington appeared in the belfry, 
and ordered Brown's sympathisers to desist. 
One of them refused, when the Mayor dropped 
him down through the scuttle, as the most con- 
venient mode of enforcing his exit." 

Another telegraphic dispatch read: 

"Cleveland, Dec. 2. — A meeting was held 
here to-night, commemoratory of the execution 
of Brown. Over 1,500 people were present. 
Able addresses were made by D. R. Tilden, 
R. S. Spauluing, C H. Langston, A. G. 
Riddle, Rev. J. C. White, and others. Res- 
olutions were adopted. The hall was draped 
in mourninr/^' 

There were a few Republican presses in va- 
rious localities, fearing no doubt the bad po- 
litical effect of mourning the loss of Rrown, 
chose rather to fish up excuses that he was in- 
sane, &c., and they pretended not to sympa- 
thize with his movements and murderous con- 
duct, but in all their editorials, they would 
somehow or other contrive to weave in a word 
of excuse and palliation. To this class of Re- 
publican papers the Winsted (Conn.) Herald 
a rabid Republican sheet, thus discoursed: 

"And here we may as well say, we have no 
admiration for that class of Republican news- 
papers which are so eager to disclaim and dis- 
own all fellowship and sympathy for old John 
Brown. Did they stop here, we could be pa- 
tient with them, but when they go further, and 
pelt him with titles of madman, crazy, mud- 
dled and insane, we say out upon them, for 
hypocrites and traitors — 'little villains,' un- 



worthy to lick or feel the foot of old John 
Brown. * * * At all events he is so un- 
successful, and so Republican jiresses, fearful 
that their party will somehow lose a vote, and 
themselves an office, fell to mouthing old John 
Brown, as heartily as twelve months since 
they praised, and vie with each other in de- 
nouncing and abusing him. For shame! Old 
Brown had more nobleness in his soul, more 
honesty in his heart, more principal in his 
action, more courage in a single finger, than 
all such politicians, from Maine to Oregon." 

"We have almost brought the American peo- 
ple to that decision, which SAjs '■Government 
or no Government — law or no law, hut slavery 
come down! Whether he broke law or violated 
Government, God bless Jolui Brown.'.'' So 
s.ays the American heart in the Northern states. 
The American head will soo7i folloiv! The 
American hand will soon begin its ivork! in 
obedien'ce to that heart and head, and we shall 
see slavoi-y, the victim of its agitation — the 
victim of pure politics and a Christian church." 
— Extract from a speech of John W. Phillips 
before the Anti-Slavery Society of 3Iass, 1859. 

The Wisconsin Chief, a paper devoted 
temperance, took occasion to rebuke the mad 
spirit of fanaticism that was rushing the coun- 
try to ruin on John Brown breakers, where- 
upon Elder Spooner, one of the subscribers of 
that paper wrote the following note: 

Waukesha, Dec. 2, 1809. 
Mr. T. W. Brown: — Discontinue my paper. 
I won't let my children read any paper that 
says John Beown was a fool. Send your bill. 
It will be paid. 

N. A. SrOONER." 

To which the editor of the Chief replied: 

"John Brown had heroism to redeem his 
folly. Elder Spooner is not so fortunate. He 
is fortunate, however, in living in a land where 
folly is not a capital offense." 

A John Brown meeting was held at Natick, 
Mass., which was attended by U. S. Senator 
Wilson, at which the following resolution was 
passed: 

'■'■]Vhereas, Reiistance to tyrants is obdience 
to God, 

Resolved, That it is the right and duty of 
slaves to resist their masters, and the right 
and duty of the people of the 7\'orth to IN- 
CITE THEM TO RESISTANCE, and to aid 
them in it!'" 

A John Brown meeting was held in Rock- 
ford, 111., Dec. 2, 1859, attended by such lead- 
ing men as Ex-Senator Talcott, who presi- 
ded, and Dr. Lyman, Mr. Hulin, Mr. Loop, 
Judge Church, Mr. BLiNN,ReY. Mr. Canaut, 
and others, who made speeches. The follow- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



67 



ing is among the resolutions they passed, offer- 
ed by Mr. Hulin, and adopted unanimously: 

Resolved^ That the memory of John 
Brown is now consigned to impartial history, 
which will vindicate his motives, and that his 
integrity, truthfulness, courage, fidelity and 
fortitude, stand as conspicuous examples for the 
veneration of all who love freedom and ap- 
plaud true courage. 

'■'■Resolved, That the city bells be tolled one 
hour in commemoration of John Bkown." 

The following appeared among the tele- 
graphic dispatches of the day: 

"one HUNDRED GUNS IN HONOR OF THE EX- 
ECUTION OF JOHN BROWN. 

Albany, N. Y., Dec. 2, 1S59. 

"To-day, between twelve and one o'clock, 
one hundred guns were fired, comemmorative 
of the execution of John Brown. It was 
previously hinted in some of the papers, that 
some of the more impulsive and enthusiastic 
portion of the Republicans intended thus to 
celebrate the event. A member of the common 
council of this city, at the last sitting, drew 
up a resolution, desiring that body to author- 
ize that demonstration, but he was dissuaded 
from it. To-day, a connon was taken from the 
State Arsenal by the keeper thereof, and plant- 
ed upon the State Street Bridge, from which a 
hundred catridges were fired by the Deputj of 
the Commissionary General. * * During 
the day the white fanatics posted placards 
through the streets. 

"Give us liberty or give us death — execution 
of Capt. John Brown." 

THE POSTULA AND FORMULA OF THEODORE 
PARKER AND HORACE GREELY. 

Shortly after the execution of John Brown 
a card appeared in the New York Tribune, 
from Theodore Parker of Boston, in which 
the following postulates are laid down as a 
formula for future action : 

"1st. A man held against his will, asaslave, 
has a natural right to kill any one who seeks 
to prevent his enjoyment of liberty. 

"2d. It may be a natural duty of a slave to 
develope this natural right in a practical man- 
ner, and actually kill those who seek to pre- 
vent his enjoyment of liberty. 

"3d. The freeman has a natural right to help 
the slaves to recover their liberty, and in that 
enterprise to do for them all which they have a 
right to do for themselves. 

"4th. It may be a natural charity for the 
freeman to help the slaves to the enjoyment of 
their liberty, and as a means to that end, to aid 
them in killing all such as oppose their natu- 
ral freedom. 

"5th. The performance of this duty is to be 
controlled by the freeman's jwojt'er to help." 

On the 2d day of Dec, 1859, an indignation 



meeting was held in the Chamber of Commerce 
in Milwaukee. A, committee was appointed on 
resolutions, consisting of Edward D. Holton, 
(afterwards elected by the Republicans to the 
Legislature,) J. H. Paine, a prominent law- 
yer of Milwaukee, Geo. Tracy, Clarence 
Shepherd and B. Domsciike, a Republican 
editor, who reported among others the follow- 
ing resolutions: 

'■'■Whereas. The fundamental principle of the 
United States Government is, that all men are 
created equal, and are entitled to the protec- 
tion of life, [except the white men murdered 
by John Brown,] liberty and property as an 
inalienable birthright, and, 

^^ Whereas, There can be no allegiance due 
to a Government from those to whom it refuses 
such protection, and, 

'■'■Whereas, To enslave innocent human be- 
ings is the highest crime against humanity, 
therefore, 

'■^Resolved. That the enslaved of this coun- 
try owe no allegiance to the Government, either 
of the United States, or of the state in which 
they live, and have a right to regard and treat 
their enslavers as their enemies [Was not this 
a declaration of war?] and that a resort to 
force to obtain their freedom, is not only the 
right of the enslaved, but may be a duty which 
they owe to themselves and to their children, 
if they can use no other means, by whicl^ they 
can escape from the House of Bondage. [One 
fact should not be lost sight of in reading these 
vaporings, and that is, John Brown, though 
he often tried, could not induce the slaves to 
join him in effecting their "fi-eedom," so that 
this criminal sympathy was a forced exotic] 

'^Whereas, The State of Virginia, under the 
forms of laio, has this day put to an ignomini- 
ous death John Brown, for an attempt to de- 
liver his fellow men from slavery, and. 

^"■Whereas — All the evidence in relation to 
this attempt proves that they did not intend to 
destroy life, except in self defense, but were 
animated solelj' by the desire to relieve the op- 
pressed, therefore 

Resolved, That John Brown and his fellow 
sufferers, who have followed his example, have 
but obeyed the Divine Command, 'remember 
those that are in bonds as bound with them,' 
have but acted in the faith of the Declaration 
drafted by Virginia's greatest statesman, that 
all men are endowed by their Creator with an 
inalienable right to liberty, and placing the 
souls in the slave's souls stead, have translat- 
ed into an immortal deed, the glorious motto, 
"give me liberty or give me death." 

'■'■Resolved — That those who justify the Revo- 
lution of '76, cannot condemn the attempt of 
John Brown," &c. 

That is, if the revolution of the British con- 
trol over this country was right, the attempt 
to revolutionize the government which was the 
result of such first revolution is right, and 



68 



FIVE HUxNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



ought not to be condemned, and so on, ad in 
fmitum, keeping society in constant revolution. 
Can it be possible that such monstrous doc- 
trines were honestly entertained by honest 
men and good citizens ? The resolutions also 
declare 

"7?tso?(Y(f, That the spectacle of a great 
state, trembling with affright at the solitary 
voice of John Brown [when backed by the 
entire "voice'' of the abolition party of the 
North] alone in prison, surrounded by thous- 
ands of armed soldiers, yet preaching repent- 
ance to oppressors, and ready to cheerfully seal 
his doctrine with his blood, is convincing proof 
®f the weakness, cowardice and guilt of the 
slaveholders to an earnest that Brown is the 
J'okn the Baplist of the new dispensation of 
freedom [What solemn mockery] and that noth- 
ing but the united and earnest protest of the 
people of the North, to break every slavehold- 
ing yoke in the Union and let the oppressed go 
free. 

^''Resolved, That as the pusillanimity of the 
North, and its ^vant of fealty to the principles 
of freedom, have encouraged the growth and 
spread of slavery, and the arrogance of the 
slave power, it is time that the North should 
awake to its responsibilities and duties, and 
that as the Union is a mocl-ery and a cheat 
to all u'ho hold to the sentiments of the 
Dcclaratio7i of Independence, and to the prin- 
ciples of Free Government, we should not be 
deterred from speaking the truth in regard to 
slavery, and the rights and duties of both the 
oppressors and the oppressed, by the silli/ and 
cowardhj threats cf dissolvina the Union,'' 
&c. 

The Rev. Geo. W. Bassett, of Ottawa, 111., 
was one of the speakers at the John Bi-own 
meeting in Chicago, and being severely criti- 
cised by the Times of that city, wrote a note to 
the editor, of which the following is an ex- 
tract: 

"When you tell your readers that I eulogized 
Capt. Brow.v, of Ossawatamie, I thank you for 
it, and I regard it as the shame of a pusillani- 
mous and servile age, that the heroism of that 
most remarkable and heroic man, is not ap- 
preciated. Ilis epitaph, like that of the noble, 
but equally unfortunate Emmet, shall be writ- 
ten by a subsequent and disenthrallfed age. 

"Sirs, I prefer your outspoken, fearless and 
terriblj' consistent advocacy of despotism; or, 
as you will say, slavery as it is, to a truckling 
and time serving spirit, that while seeking to 
use the anti slavery sentiment of the country 
for apolitical result, tries to cast odium upon 
the very unpopular development of it." 

This was said of those Republican sheets 
that professed to dislike the John Brown raid, 
for fear of its Tprohahle political consequences, 
which might be adverse to their political pros- 
pects: 



The following appeared among the telegraph 
items of 

"New York, Nov. 2. 1859.— Wendell 
Phillips, of Boston, delivered a lecture last 
night, in Brooklyn, in which he argued that 
John Brown was the only American who had 
acted boldly up to the <r«e American idea, and 
cast aside all those false and fatal warpings of 
an effete conservative, and refused to regard 
anything as government, or any statute as law, 
except those which conformed to his own sense 
of justice and right. [This is the Higher Law 
doctrine on the point of a pike ] Virginia was 
not a state. Mr. Wise was not a Governor. 
The Union was not a nation. All these so- 
called governments were organized piracies, 
and John Brown was to-day the only real and 
true government on the soil of Virginia^ and 
had an infinitely better right to hang Governor 
Wise than Gov. Wise had to hang him." 

Of course, having declared that it was the 
purpose of himself and his aiders and abettors 
to dissolve the Union, it only remained for him 
to second the means he and his secession com- 
patriots had set in motion. 

As that clause in the Constitution which re- 
cognizes the right to hold slaves, and also to 
secure their return if they escaped, was not 
forced upon the people of the North by the 
South, nor upon any State by the General 
Government, but was the free act of all the 
people combined, the utterance of such fulmi- 
nations and the hundreds of others quoted in 
our "collection" of Abolition "curiosities," no 
language we can command can sufficiently ex- 
press the abhorance all good people must en- 
tertain of such fanatical and treasonable dia- 
tribes. We quote again: 

"John Brown, dead, will live in millions of 
hearts. It will be easier to die in a good cause 
even on the gallows, since John Brown has 
hallowed that mode of exit from the troubles 
and temptations of this mortal existancc. 
Then, as to the 'irrepressible conflict,' who 
does not see that this sacrifice must inevitably 
intensify its progress, and hasten its end? 
[Why, Phillips contends that was just what 
the John Brown raid was got up for.] Yes, 
John Brown dead, is verily a power — like 
Sampson in the falling temple of l)agon — like 
ZisKA, dead, with his skin stretched on a drum 
head, still routing the foes he bravely fought 
while he lived, so let us be reverently grateful 
for the privilege of living in a world rendered 
noble by the daring of heroes, the suffering of 
martyrs — among whom let none doubt that his- 
tory will accord an honorable niche to old 
John Brown." — Horace Greeley. 

Large handbills were posted in Philadelphia 
calling the citizens of the Republican "per- 
suasion" together, Dec. 2, 1859, for the pur- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK, 



69 



pose of expressing sympathy for John Brown. 
Dr. FuRNEss and Lucretia Mott were an- 
nounced as the speakers. 

"Execution of John Brown. — Before 
this article reaches the eye of those for whom 
it was intended, Virginia will have wreaked 
her purposes on the body of John Brown, 
and he will be dead. * ■"' * It is not din- 
puled that John Brown had violated the stat- 
utes — rendered himself liable to the fate tvhich 
has overtaken him. Why this universal feel- 
ing, attention and excitement, with reference 
to this case? It is simply this, through all 
the mist which obscures it, and all the laws 
referred to as justifying it, the grand fact is 
patent, that John Brown is CRUCIFIED as 
the representative of an idea — of a principle of 
importance to humanity, and dear to the in- 
stincts of every human heart." — Milwaukee 
Free Democrat, Dec. 2, 1859. 

"The gallows of .John Brown, said Emer- 
son, will be glorified, not as the cross, but like 
the cross, [a distinction without a difference,] 
and so it will, because the gallows of John 
Brown, as the cross, is used to persecute 
ideas, or great principles of enduring hen- 
efit and necessity to humanity, and as the ideas 
of Christianity received from the cross their 
most potent and enduring impulses, so trill 
liberty leap from the scaffold.^ when John 
Brown's spirit is dismissed, with an impulse 
which shall hereafter know no check, until its 
mission is accomplished.^'' — PAd. 

"Man proposes and God disposes. Politici- 
ans may wrangle and split hairs, and dispute 
over the nice shades of legal and moral guilt 
involved in this matter, [John Brown's] but 
it passes at once, so far as popular heart and 
judgment are concerned, out from under all 
subtleties, into the broad field — into the "irre- 
pressible conflict," waging between barbarism 
[that is, opposition to murder] as represented 
by slavery on one hand, and Christianity [that 
is, murder and rapine] as represented by free- 
dom on the other." — Ibid. 

"So far as they express sympathy for the 
honest, brave, but misguided and infatuated 
individual, who to-day falls a victim to his own 
indiscretion, and defiance of law, we accord 
assent and approval.'^ — Wisconsin State Jour- 
nal. 

"I will apply the sentiment befere I close, 
once applied to George IIilliard to Garri- 
son; he said the time will come when Mass.a- 
chusetts will not find the marble white enough 
on which to write the name of Garrison, and I 
will say that the day is not far distant when 
Vii'ginia will not be able to find the slab pure 
enough to bear the carved name of John 
Brown. (Applause.") — Speech of the Rev. 
Mr. Staples at the John Brown Meeting, Mil., 
Dec. 2, 18.59. 

"Virginia, herself, has crowned the Tcry 
spirit of agitation that she ought to allay, and 



the blood of Old Brown will become th-:; seed of 
that very conflict hitherto mentioned orly by 
woidof mouth." — Mil. Sentinel 

',The saint whose fate yet hangs in suspense. 
but whose martyrdom, if it shall be perfected^ 
will make the gallows as glorious as the cross." 
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, at the Tremont Temple, 
Boston. 

"Brown has done for liberty in our country 
what few of our citizens have done, since the 
day of patriotic devotion on the great battle- 
fields of the Revolution." — Reo. M. P. Kinney, 
Janesville, Wis. 

"We disclaim sympathy with Brown's scheme 
of emancipation, out we regret that so brave a 
man should fall a victim to the generous im- 
pulses of his patriotic heart." — Menasha 
( Wis.) Conservator. 

"A man will suffer death to-day because he 
fought for the liberty of a subject race, and for 
the honor of the Republic." — Mil. Atlas, 
[Geruian Re^J.) 

"John Brown's body may not be, bat his 
principles are imperishable." — Milwaukee Free 
Democrat. 

"While the responsive heart of the North 
has been substantially sympathizing with the 
one whom they admire and venerate, and love, 
tue great soul itself has passed away into eter- 
nal heavens. During the eighteen centuries 
which have passed, no such character has ap- 
peared anywhere. The galleries of the re- 
sounding ages echo with no footfall mightier 
than the martyr of to-day. He has gone. Ef- 
forts to save him wore fruitless. Prayers were 
unavailing. He stood before his murderers de- 
fiantly, asking no mercy. * * ^ 

"Bewildered not and daunted not. the shift- 
ing scenes of his life's drama, at the last, 
brought to him neither regrets nor forebodings. 
Having finished the work which God had given 
him to do, this apostle of a new dispensation, 
in imitation of the Divine, received with forti- 
tude his baptism of blood! And this behold- 
ing, the heavens opened, and Jesus standing at 
the right hand of the throne of God this last of 
Christian martyrs stepped proudly and calmly 
upon the scaflTold, and thence upward into the 
embrace of angels, and into the General As- 
sembly and Church of the First Born, whose 
names are written in heaven." — iVcit- York 
Tribune, Dec. 2, 1859. 

"Old Brown, Esq., is supposed to have been 
strangled to-day, for obeying the Golden Rule." 

— Wood County ( 117*-.) Reporter. 

We have thus devoted considerable space 
to the foregoing treasonable vaporings, partly 
to exhibit the history «f the times — partly to 
show the general sympathy of the leading Re- 
publicans with the avowed aims of John Brown, 
to bring on civil war and dissolve the Union — 
partly to show the holy and pious reverence in 



70 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



Avliicli both murderers and traitors were hel'1 
by those who not only hate the Government of 
their fathers, but canonize its destroyers as 
worthy of all honor — that power and spoils 
may come. 

Let us enquire why all this holy horror at 
the execution of John Brown. Who and what 
was he, that he should be assigned the highest 
niche in the Abolition Pantheon, as the "equal 
of Jesus Christ," and "not to be mentioned 
the same day with George Washington." John 
Brown was a Kansas horse thief and murder- 
er, lie devoted his time in that territory in 
making incursions into Missouri, in stealing, 
robbing and killing innocent pei-sons, who had 
never harmed him in the least, for proof of 
which we refer ^to the Kansas Investigating 
report, made by a Republican committee, and 
published by order of the Republican House of 
Representatives. His gross and brutal murder 
of the Doyles, the Wilkinsons, and the robbe- 
ries he committed, are set out in that report 
under oath. He then went to the Egyptian 
department of Canada, opened a line of com- 
munication with Abolitionists in Boston, who 
furnished him men and money to carry out his 
(noj not his, but their) infamous schemes to 
dissolve the Union. 

The Abolitionists of Boston, the descend 
ants in a regular line of those who resolved it 
"unbecoming in a religious and moral people 
to rejoice at the victories, obtained by our arms 
over the enemy" — knew too well the aims and 
purposes of Brown, for they had assisted in, 
his plans, and had replenished his exchequer, 
and when the telegraph announced the failure 
of his emeiile, there was a fluttering among the 
marplots of Boston. They feared that on the 
trial some damning testimony would ex- 
pose their share of the plot, and hence they 
resolved that "no man shall be forced by law 
or otherwise, to leave Massachusetts, to attend 
the trial." 

The prospect at one time seemed clear that 
the whole bubble would explode, and all the 
guilty be brought to punishment. Gerrit 
Smith became suddenly excited and was sent 
to the lunatic assylum as a "raving maniac," 
but as soon as the main witness "leaped the 
scaffold," he recovered. 

Had the entire North, as one man, denounced 
the apparently fool-hardy foray of John Brown, 
fhe whole thing would have passed off as any 



other crime of equal magnitude would; but the 
general and almost universal endorsement 
which this development received from the rul- 
ing majority of the North — their laudations of 
the Godlike qualities of this old reprobate, 
horse thief and murderer, tilled the South with 
just alarm, and horrified the friends of the 
Union everywhere. From that moment it was 
considered the "death knell of the Union," as 
Jeeferson had predicted. No Government on 
earth could stand such a shock and survive. — 
We don't mean the shock of the handful of 
men under Brown, and their 2,500 pike*, but 
the "rear support" of that mighty "reserve" 
that filled the entire North with impious "ira- 
I'os" for the actors in the first skirmish, which 
was so certain to usher in the "Impending 
Crisis" so vividly foretold by Hilton, the abo- 
lition llel'per. Under such a pressure of open, 
undisguised sympathy as existed everywhere at 
the North, he that can acquit the abolition par- 
ty of being particeps criminis, both before and 
after the fact, must carry more pounds of char- 
ity than the largest iron clad can of steam. — 
This ebullition of Northern riot plainly told 
the South to prepare for war, after the first 
blow had been struck. It was the beat of the 
"long roll" — the reveille of battle. And still, 
we are told that slavery is the cause of the 
war. 

True, a few men at the South calmly folded 
their arms, and with a grim smile welcomed 
the shock as the harbinger of that conflict 
which was to destroy the Union the.T/ had so 
long hated. Says Yancy. the head devil of 
Southern secessionists: 

"The blow is a severe one. We can well 
afford the blow — the pain is sweet, for it will 
accomplish more in aid of disunion than all the 
platforms, resolves and agitations of a life- 
time." 

In the published report of the proceedings 
of the Milwaukee District Convention, com- 
posed of Lhirty-one churches — six Presbyterian 
and twenty-five Congregational — held at Hart- 
ford, Washington county, Wisconsin, in 1859, 
we find the following: 

'■'■Resolved, That we mourn over the degene- 
ration and guilt of our country, in having 
brought any of ker citizens to the necessity of 
disobedience to human law, in order to render 
loyalty to the laws of heaven .'" 

The following graphic article from the New 
York Herald of December, 1859, when read by 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



71 



the light of subsequent events, is in some re- 
spects prophetic — yet that kind of phrophesy 
which comes by knowledge that causf is certain 
to produce its effect: 

"The meeting at Tremont Temple, in Bos- 
ton, on Saturday, for the benefit of 'ihe family 
«f John Brown,' a report of which appeared 
in our issue of j'esterday, is a significant fact, 
a sign of the times, whose import cannot be 
mistaken. Following up the letters and lec- 
tures, the editorial articles, speeches and ser- 
mons, which have been already laid before our 
readers, and which all look in the same di- 
rection, that meeting is well calculated to 
cause alarm throughout the land. If it stood 
alone, or if the rabid anti-slavery sentiiaent to 
which it gave such violent and war-like ex- 
pression, were confined to a few fanatics at the 
North, the thing might be treated as simply 
ridiculous, but when we regard this demon- 
stration as a symptom or outburst at one point 
of an inflammation which has seized the whole 
Republican party, and when we see the viru- 
lent poison of which that party is full, bursting 
forth at all points, then, indeed, there is cause 
for the most gloomy apprehension, especially 
when the conservative element, the salt of the 
body politic, designed to preserve it from pu- 
trification and from being resolved into ite 
original elements, stands back apathetic and 
inactive, waiting we suppose, for God to inter- 
pose by some special Providence, and forget- 
ting the grand old maxim that, 'Heaven al- 
ways helps those who help themselves.' 

"The meeting at Tremont Temple was nu- 
merously attended, and a large number of 
ladies were present. The assemblage was 
called to order by Hon. John A. Andrew, 
(now Governor of Massachusetts.) and cheek 
by jowl with Wendell Phillips were Rev. J. 
M. Manning and Rev. Dr. Neal, the latter of 
whom 'invoked the Divine blessing,' and of- 
fered up prayer, thus throwing a religious in- 
gredient into the boiling cauldron of 'hellbroth,' 
in order to make it overflow into the fire, and 
set the house in flames. 

"When the clergy encourage insurrection 
and civil war, and that with the approbation 
of the people, and even of the gentler sex, we 
are come upon dangerous times. Such was 
the fiinaticism that prevailed at the meeting 
that a letter from a clergyman of milder coun- 
sels, who declined to attend, and took the op- 
portunity of stating his reasonS; while contra- 
dicting a public announcement that he was to 
be present, was hissed because he said he at 
first understood that both sides of the question 
were to be discussed — an idea the Hon. Mr. 
Andrews pronounced ridiculous, as it was 
hardly likely that at such a meeting there was 
any one present who thought there were two 
sides to the question as to whether 'John 
Brown's family' should be left to starve. No 
doubt they were all of the numerous family of 
John Brown, who, we are assured by Rev. 
Mr. Wheelock, count a million in the North. 

"Rev. Mr. Manning rejected with acorn the 



notion that John Brown was insane. On the 
contrary he was 'the sword in the hand of a 
high power, the finger of God writing upon the 
wall of Belshazzar's palace the doom of ty- 
rants.' The reverend fire-brand then goes on 
to institute a comparison betweei. the case of 
John Brown and that of Crispus Attucks, the 
colored man who was the first Boston victim of 
the American Revolution, and whose remains 
the people of Boston followed to the grave in 
long processions, and years after celebrated 
the anniversary of the massacre, till at last the 
celebration was changed to the Forth of July. 
Daniel Webster had said that from the day of 
the Boston massacre was dated the disruption 
of the I5ritish empire. So might it be with 
the death of John Brown and some others. 

''Daniel Webster might say hereafter that 
from the moment when John Brown swung be- 
tween heaven and earth, might be dated the 
beginning of the end of American slavery and 
the disruption of the American Union. Thus 
is the parallel rendered complete. The first 
revolution began in the death of Crispus At- 
tucks, the colored man. The second will begin 
in the death of John Brbwn. The first was a 
sanguinary struggle of seven long years. The 
second is to be of the same character, taking 
its hue and complexion] from the events at 
Harper's Ferry, and according to the Rev. Mr. 
Wheelock, inaugurating the "new era of the 
anti-slavery cause," in which "to moral agita- 
tion will be added physical, to argument ac- 
tion! for other devoted men will follow in the 
wake of John Brown, and carry on to its full 
results the work he has begun." It is the logic 
of bayonets, and rifles and pikes that is hence- 
forth to convince the slave holders of the 
South. This, says Mr. Andrew, 'is the 
eternal and heaven sustained nature of the 
irrepressible conflict.' The same gentleman 
invokes 'the holy memories' of the Old South 
Church, and then turns to 'the battle ground 
of Concord.' 

"Ralph Waldo Emmerson follows up these 
revolutionary parallels by tracing the genealogy 
of John Brown back to one of the pilgrims in 
the Mayflower, and showing that his grand- 
father was a Revolutionary captain, and 

" 'Our Captain Brown,' says Mr. Emmerson, 'is happily 
a representative of the American Repulilic. He did not 
believe in moral suasion, but in put.ling tliinijs throughV 

"No doubt in the next edition of Emmerson's 
'Representative Man,' the name of John 
Brown will have a most conspicuous place. 

" 'What a favorite will he be in history,' continues the 
abolition leader. 'Nothing can resist it. No man dare 
believe that there exists in their generation another man as 
worthy to live, as deserving of public and private honors.' 

"The extremists in the French Revolution 
set up a naked courtesan for public worship as 
the 'Goddess of Liberty.' The orators of the 
second American Revolution propose the apoth- 
eosis of John Brown, after he dies the death of 
a murderer on the gallows — a man of whom the 
leading journalists of his own party in Kansas 
has admitted, that he took five I'espectable men 
— heads of families — out of their beds at dead 



72 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



hour of night, and mutillated and murdered 
them in cold blood. This, no doubt, Giiirison, 
Rev. Messrs. Manning and Neal, and the rest, 
would call '-doingGod's service,'' and the brig- 
and and the assassin, stained with the blood 
of his fellow-men, will be worshipped after 
death. His gallows will be the emblem and 
symbol of nigger redemption, and bits of the 
rope with which he will be hanged, will be sold 
at enormous prices, and be venerated, like pie- 
ces of the triie cross. He will be regarded as 
a second Saviour, whose sacrificial blood has 
ransomed the black race His words and acts 
will become a new gospel, and the evangelists 
of revolution will present it from Maine to 
Virginia. 

"Mr. Emerson gave the true interpi'eta- 
tion to the object of the meeting and of the 
collection of the "sinews of war," when he 
said : 

"I hope then, tbiit in addition to our relief to the fami- 
ly of John Brown, we Rhall endeavor to relieve all those 
in whose behalf he suffers, and all those who are in si/m- 
pathy with him. and not forget to aid him also, in tho 
best way, by securing freedom and independence in Mass- 
achusetts itself." 

"What Mr. Emerson means by the latter, he 
replies ; 

"He says that if any citizens of that State is summoned 
as a witness to Virginia, Xhe process of law must be resist- 
ed by force, if habeas corpus will not do, that becomes a 
nuisance, ami the citizens must rely upon the substance, 
instead of the empty form—\i\ other words, we must go 
back to the original right of resistance and revolution, 
and nullify the constitution, and the laws? Tor such an 
object Mr. Emerson intimates that pecuniary and other 
aid will be wanted. 

"Thus is the Republican party hurried along 
on the dark stream of its destiny by a power 
which its moderate leaders cannot resist. The 
party consists of two elements — one the politi- 
cal, the other the fanatical. The political 
wants merely spoils and power, and to that 
end keeps up the anti-slavery agitation, in 
which it has no faith. The other element — 
the fanatical, or abolition, pure and simple — 
is perfectly sincere, like John Brown, and is 
rapidly leavening the whole party. Already 
the Republicans are more than half Abolition- 
ized, and the process is still going on, at a fear- 
ful speed. The moderate men will be carried 
away by the resistless current, and when the 
politicians, who always go with the strongest 
side, find out the strength of the revolutionary 
element, they will yield themselves up to its 
sweeping energy, preferring to be borne on 
the crest of the wave rather than to be over- 
whelmed beneath its weight." 

In a speech in Philadelphia, 1863, Colonel 
Forney delivered himself as follows: 

"A year ago this night, when an assemblage 
not so enthusiastic as this did me the honor to 
pay me a visit, I took a liberty with them; and 
for that I have since that time been slandered 
by all the copperheads, lr»m Wm. H. Reed, to 
Chas. J. Diddle, ("up" or "down" as you may 
please to make it.) I asked the band to play 
a national hymn, the hyma of John Brown 



(Cheers.) I asked them to play the great pc^m 
or great epic which told to the world that the 
soul of that martyr, who fell because of his 
hostility to slavery, was still marching on, and 
I tell you gentlemen, it is marching on. (Cries 
of "that's so," and tremendous cheering) John 
Brown's knapsack is not only strapped to his 
back, but his soul is marching on; aye, his soul 
is commingling with yours. Now, gentlemen, 
in conclusion let me ask the band (a year ago 
the band that came here scarcely knew the 
tune) to play John Brown; for I suspect it has 
become as familiar to you as the "Star Span- 
gled Banner" or "Hail Columbia." (Applause) 

Do not such insane things prove the prophecy 
of the Ilr^rald. 

(Trom tho Kansas Herald of Freedom.) 
"Old John Brown came to Kansas late in the 
summer or fall of 1855 — that he came armed 
and in a peculiar manner— that these arms 
were furnished him in the State of New York 
— that their supply was made the condition of 
his coming here — that he showed a bloodthirst- 
iness peculiarly his.own, during the AVaukarusa 
War, in Docember of that year, and that no- 
where in his whole Kansas history do we find 
a particle of evidence that he desired to culti- 
vate the principles of peace. 

"We sincerely hope that the',future historians 
of Kansas will take pains to post themselves 
on these subjects, that they may not do injus- 
tice to innocent parties. 'Old John Brown has 
tigured as a hero in Kansas.' The time will 
come when history will be ventilated, and in- 
stead of a hero, he will stand before the coun- 
try in his true character. Under cover of 
night, in the name of religion, he committed 
crimes too base for common sinners to meddle 
icith.^^ 

Thus ends our quotations on this subject. 
We have shown that there was nothing in the 
life or character of this old horse thief and 
murderer, John Brown, calculated to draw 
after him the prayers, the good wishes, or even 
the sympathies of the wise or virtuous. We 
therefore, have the right to infer that all those 
who affected sympathy with John Brown, but 
manifested their own diabolical guilt, not 
merely as partakers in his crime at Harper's 
Ferry, but that higher crime of purposely and 
treasonably aiding a rebellion to break up the 
Union. A stretch of unbounded charity may 
possibly snatch a few "misguided fanatics" 
from the category of wilful treason, but history 
will not — cannot — exhonorate them from con- 
sequential guilt. 

To the guilty Southern disunionists, the 
general Northern endorsement of John Brown 
was a God send. They saw in it the means to 
developc to the full a Southern disunion party, 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



7^ 



and the most fervent appeals were made by 
Yancey, Toombs, Rhett, Davis and other 
Southern ti'aitors, to aroase the spirit of alarm 
in the Southern mind, and they met with a 
success which no other events had enabled them 
to gloat over. 

It gives us no pleasure to record these dis- 
graceful facts, but when our Gibbon shall take 
up his unbiased pen to write out the impartial 
history of our Greece and our Rome, he will 
thank us lor collecting these facts, so conve- 
nient for his purpose, and when the crimes of 
this age shall be foliood, not by the penny-a- 
liner or cheap pamphleteer, but by the histo- 
rian, who shall look through the telescope of 
truth, without bias, and scanning the designs 
of faction through the long vista of the then 
past, shall present the "logic of our history" 
to our children's children, as we now read that 
of our father's fathers. 

That the Kansas conflict was stimulated, and 
the Harper's Ferry affair consummated, and 
afterwards so boldly endorsed, for the express 
purpose of so exciting the Northern mind as to 
cast the entire Northern electoral vote for an 
exclusively Northern candidate in 1860 — that 
this great leading fact will appear in the un- 
biased history of the future, together with a full 
expose of its ^criminal ^aims and purposes, we 
have not the slightest doubt. 

On looking back upon the events of the short 
past, our only wonder is that civil war had not 
actually broken out in 1859. The fact that it 
did not, will astonish all who can appreciate 
the explosive materials of which the American 
chai'acter is composed. 



CHAPTER XV. 

WISCONSIN NULLIFICATION AND SECESSION. 

The Four Shocks of Secession : 1st, New England ; 2(1, 
?outli Carolina; 3d, Wisconsin ; 4th, The Confederate 
States. ..Wisconsin Bids "Positive Defiance" to the 
General Government. ..Constitutional Provisions Kela- 
tive to Judicial Dicisions...A Premeditated Conspiracy 
to take Wisconsin Out of the Union. ..Complete Chrono- 
logical History of the Booth Case, and Judicial Action 
therjon...The Federal Supreme Court declare that Wis- 
consin was the First to Set Up the Supremacy of the 
State over the Federal Court. ..Republicans Break Open 
Arsenal, and Seize Arms to Defy the Power of the 
Government. ..Judge Paine's "Eloquent Extract "...Op- 
position to Law Placed Judge P. on the Bench. ..The 
Rescue Leaguers. ..Republican Meeting to Denounce 
Law. ..Judge Crawford Opposed solely because he felt 
Bound by the Decision of the Federal Court. ..The Con- 
stitution Quoted. ..Lloyd Garrison declares Fugitive Law 
Constitutional, but Defies It..." Milwaukee Sentinel" 
on Habeas Corpus and Jury Trial for Negroes. ..Opposi- 
tion to the General Government a Political Test. ..The 
"Wisconsin State Journal " on said Test. ..Various Re- 
publican Papers on the Test. ..Judge Smith's Opinion... 
No Precedent to Sustain It. ..What Senator Ilowe said... 



6 



Judge Smith Scouts tlie Conseqnences of llis Own Acts 
...The Seven Points as Proof.. .The " State Journal " 
declares "Dissolution no Misfortune "...Republicans 
Resolve to "Revolutionize tlie (iovcrnment "...Repub- 
lican Papers for Dissolution. ..To Sustain the Decision of 
the Federal Court declared a Crime. ..Kopublicans claim 
that Judge Paine was elected expressly to Defy the Fed- 
oral Court. ..Disunionists in Mass Convention. ..General 
Government again Defied. ..Rtpublieans endorse South- 
ern Nullifip^tion... Wisconsin Jjugishiture "Positively 
Defies " the Federal Government. ..Substitute to Sustain 
the Government Voted Down. ..Doolittle's Views. ..North- 
ern Nullification a Twin of Southern Nullification... 
Wisconsin endorses South Carolina and South Carolina 
endorses Wisconsin. 

TUE WISCONSm COKSPIRACV. 

"0, pity, God, this miserable age ! — 
What strategems ! how fell ! huw butcherly, ■ 
Erroneous, mutinous, unnatural, ' 

This deadly quarrel daily doth beset ! " 

.. n * *!. .. , [AV/(// Henry VI. 

Between the actmg of a dreadful thing 
And the first motion, all the interim i"s 
Like a phantasms, or a hideous dream • 
Tlie genius and the mortal instruments' 
Are there in council, and the state of a man 
Like a little kingdom, suffers then ' 

The nature of an insurrection." 

[Shahspeare' s Jaliu.^ Ctesar. 
During the life of this Government, it has 
experienced four shocks of sesession. Startle 
not, for such is the truth of history. Sesession 
does not necessarily consist in actually taking 
up arms and mustering hostile forces against 
the General Government, but it consists in 
treasonable resolves, defiant denunciations and 
authoritative declarations by the people by 
legislative bodies, and by Supreme Court de- 
cisions, ^os/iu'eZy defyi7iij the General Govern- 
ment. As we have already seen, Massachusetts 
Connecticut and Rhode Island seceded from 
the Union in 1814. They were the pioneers in 
the criminal work of sesession, and by the 
blue light of the Plartford Convention, we 
read their treasonable anathemas, their crimi- 
nal hatred of our Commoa Couutfy, and their 
threats of "positive defiance," hurled boldly 
against the General Government. 

In 1833 South Carolina seceded from the 
Union, as far as that treasonable State could, 
without successful revolution. She bid posi- 
tive defiance to the General Government, and 
threatened to, and did resist its laws. 

In 1854 and to 1859 Wisconsin followed in the 
wake of old treasonable Massachusetts, and 
traitorous South Carolina. Yes, Wisconsin 
seceded from the Union ! So far as it was pos- 
sible for the reigning majority to take her out 
of the Union, they did it. The Supreme 
Court, composed of members who were elected 
expressly on the issue of defiance to the Gener- 
al Government, took the broad ground of Cal- 
houn nullification, and seceded from the au- 
thority of the Federal Government. The Ex- 



74 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL T^XTS. 



ecutive followed, in 1858. recommended resist- 
ance to the General Government — repeated it 
in 1859, when the legislative department en- 
dorsed the recommendation, and passed re- 
solves, which the Governor signed, bidding 
^'■positive defiance^' to the power of the Feder- 
al Union. Thus, by the conjoint action of her 
Judiciary, her Executive and Legislative De- 
partments, AVisconsin seceded from the Union, 
by placing herself in open and undisguised 
hostility to the Government. 

The constitution of the United States pro- 
vides that — 

•'This constitution and the laws of Congress 
passed in pursuance thereof, shall be the su- 
preme law of the land, and obligatory upon the 
judges m every State." 

And the same constitution declares: 

"The judicial power [of the United States] 
shall extend to all cases in law and equity, 
arising under this constitution, the laws of 
States," kc.—A't. JIT, Sec. II. 

This is plain, unequivocal language, and de- 
fined by the highest court in the nation to 
mean just what it says — giving exclusive, final 
jurisdiction to the Federal Court over all laws 
passed by Congress, &C. 

In 1793 Congress passed a Fugitive Slave 
Law, which the Supreme Court of the United 
States had decided in accordance with the pro- 
visions of the constitution of the United States. 
This ought to have settled the matter, and did 
settle it so far as judicial, or any official action 
could. Nothing short of revolution and dis- 
union could overrule the decision and the law, 
unless the sam« power that enacted and adju- 
dicated it. Any opposition, vict armis, or by 
legally constituted subordinate tribunals, was 
nothing short of rebellion and revolution, to 
the extent such opposition was carried. 

We shall show, and we blush to record the 
fact, as a disgrace to our adopted Stale, that 
the party in power entered into a conspiracy to 
place Wisconsin in antagonism to the Geijeral 
Government, and by such antagonism, to retire 
it out of the Un.tiu. 

We shall show that it was no child's play — 
no "lapsus judicoe" — no mistake of judgment 
— but a premeditated conspiracy, formidable 
in numbers, and dangerous from its associa- 
tion of power. 

These politicians, knowing their obligations 
to the Federal Government to peacably abide 



by all decisions of the superior Federal tri- 
bunal, until legally reversed, boldly set up the 
standard of revolt, and set an example which 
the traitors of (he South were too willing to 
follow, for the truth of which let facts and his- 
tory be summoned as witnesses. 

On the 11th day of March, 1S54, Sherman 
M. Booth, one of the most active, influential 
Republicans of AVisconsin, headed a mob in 
Milwaukee to forcibly rescue Joshua Glover, 
a refugee slave, who was then in the custody 
of the law, "on claim" of the one to whom his 
."servicess" bad been adjudged as "due," un- 
der the Constitution of his country. It was a 
violent mob, that broke into the jail and for- 
cibly took therefrom the object of their vio- 
lence. 

For this act of mob violence, Booth, with 
others, was arrested and brought before United 
States Commissioner AVinfield Smith, who de- 
cided that Booth should be held to bail, to 
appear and answer before the United States 
District Court of Wisconsin, on the first Mon- 
day of July next ensuing. But on the 26th of 
Maj', (interim,) his bail, for some cause, de- 
livered him up to the United States ]NJarshal, 
in presence of the Commissioner, and requested 
that Booth be committed. Booth failed to again 
recognize, and was delivered to the keeper of 
the Milwaukee jail, to await the course of law. 

On the 27th of May, Booth made application 
to Hon. A. D. Smith, one of the Justices of 
the Supreme Court of AA'isconsin, for a writ of 
habeas corj^vs, stating that Stephen V. R. Able- 
man, United States Marshal, had unjustly re- 
strained him of his liberty, and alleged that 
his detention was illegal, because the Fugitive 
Act, under which he was committed, was un- 
constitutional, though he knew the highest 
court in the land had decided it constitutional. 

On the same day. Judge Smith allowed the 
writ, and directed the Marshal to bring the 
prisoner before him, which was complied with. 

To the Marshal's return Booth demurred, 
as not sufficient in law to justify his detention. 

Upon the hearing, Judge Smith ordered the 
Marshal to release the prisoner, which was 
done. 

On the 9th of June following, the Marshal 
applied to the Supreme Court for a certiorari, 
and praying to have the proceedings brought to 
the Supi'eme Court for revision. This was al- 
lowed the same day, and was issued on the 12th 
of the same month. On the 20th Justice Smith 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



75 



made return, stating the proceedings before 
him. 

On the 19th of July the case was argued be- 
fore the Supreme Court of that state, and 
judgment was announced, affirming the deci- 
sion of the Associate Justice. 

On the 26th of October the Marshal sued out 
a writ of error to the Federal Supreme Court, 
returnable on the first Monday of December, 
1854, in order to bring the judgment there for 
revision, and the defendant in error, (Booth) 
was cited to appear on that day. L. F. Kellogg, 
Esq., Clerk of the Supreme Court of Wiscon- 
sin, was directed to and did certify the record 
to the Federal Court — thus showing that the 
Wisconsin Court acknowledged the superior 
jurisdiction of the Federal Court on the 4th of 
December, 1854. Booth filed a memorandum 
in the Federal Court, and submitted a printed 
argument which was used before the Wisconsin 
Court. 

Before this writ of error was sued out, the 
Supreme Court of Wisconsin entered on the 
record that they had decided the law of 1793 
and 1850 unconstitutional, respectively. 

Be it remembered, that at this time the Su- 
preme Court of Wisconsin did not deny their 
obligation to obey the writ of error, and it 
went so far as to state minutely what the points 
were that they had decided — the non validity of 
the fugitive law, so that the Federel Court 
could have no difBculty in determining what to 
act on (?) and pronouncing its judgment 
thereon. 

This matter rested in the Superior Court till 
the December term of 1858, so as to act upon 
the.= econd Booth case, at the same time — both 
involving the same principle. And he it rc- 
mevihercd that while this case ivas pending most 
of the following revolutionary history occur- 
red — some of it even after it had been decided. 

The second Booth case may be thus stated: 

On the 4th of January, 1855, the Grand 
Jury of Milwaukee county found a bill of in- 
dictment against Booth for the part h,e took in 
the rescue mob, and on the 9th his counsel 
moved to quash the indictment, which the 
court over-ruled, and he plead not guilty. On 
the 10th a jury was empanelled to try the case. 
Byron Paine, now one of the Justices of the 
Supreme Court of the state, was his counsel. — 
On the 13th he was found guilty. On the 16th 
he moved for a new trial, which was argued on 



the 20th, and on the 23d the Court over-ruled 
the motion, and sentenced the prisoner to pris- 
on one month, and to pay a fine of §1,000 and 
costs, and to remain in custody till the sentence 
should be complied with- No one pretends he 
did not have a fair and impartial trial. 

On the 26th of the same month the prisoner 
filed a petition in the Supreme Court of the 
state, that he was illegally convicted, because 
the law under which he was convicted was un- 
constitutional, &c., and asked for a writ ef * 
habeas corpus, with a view to his release." On 
the 27th the Court issued two habeas corpus 
writs, one directed to Sheriff Conover, of Mil- 
waukee, and the other to Marshal Ableman. 

On the 30th, the Marshal made his return, 
denying the jurisdiction *of the Court, and 
citing the sentence and conviction of the Dis- 
trict Court as his authority for holding the 
prisoner — that he had delivered the prisoner to 
the sheriff of Milwaukee county, &c. On the 
same day Sheriff Conover produced Booth in 
Court, when the constitutionality of the Fngi- 
tive Law was again drawn in question. 

On the 2d of February following, the case 
was heard, and on the 3d the court decided the 
imprisonment illegal, and ordered Booth's dis- 
charge, and he was set at liberty. 
I On the 21st of April following, the Attorney 
General of the United States presented a peti- », 
tion to the Chief Justice of the Federal Court, 
accompanied with all the papers in the original 
case, duly certified by the Clerk of the Wiscon- 
sin Court, and praying that a Writ of Error 
might be issued to bring the action of the State 
Court up for revision. The writ was accord- • 
ingly issued, and rf^turnable on the first Mon- 
day of December, 1855, and the Defendant in 
Error cited to appear on that day. 

No return having been made to this writ, the 
Attorney General of the United States, on the 
1st of February, 1856, filed affidavits, showing 
that the writ of error had been duly served on 
the Clerk of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, 
on the 20th of May, 1855, and the citation 
served on the defendant on the 28th of June 
following. An afiSdavit was also filed, from 
the United States District Attorney of Wiscon- 
sin, stating further that the clerk and one of 
justices of the Wisconsin Court had informed 
him 

'■'■that the court had directed the clerk to make 
710 return to the writ of error, and to enterno 



76 



FIVE HUNDP„ED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



order upon the jotirnal or records of the court 
containing the same." 

Upon these proofs, the Attorney General of 
the United States moved the court for an order 
upon said clerk, to make return on or before the 
first day of the next ensuing term of the Fed- 
eral court. The rule or order vras accordingly 
laid, and the 22d of July, 18.56, the snid At- 
torney General filed with the clerk of the Fed- 
eral court the affidavit of the United States 
Marshal of Wisconsin, that he had served the 
rule on the clerk, and no return having been 
made, the Attorney General, on the 27th of 
February, 1857, moved for leave to file a cer- 
tified copy of the record of the Supreme Court 
of Wisconsin, and to docket the case in that 
form, and on the 6th of March, 1857, the case 
in that form was docketed, but the case was 
not reached for argument till the following 
term— 1858. 

Chief Justice Taney, in uttering his deci- 
sion, remarked : 

"And it further appears that the State Court 
have not only claimed and exercised this ju- 
risdiction, but have also determined that their 
decision is final and conclusive UPON ALL 
THE COURTS OF THE UNITED STATES! 
and ordered their Clerk to disregard and re- 
fuse obedience to the writ of error issued by 
this Court, pursuant to the act of Congress of 
1789, to bring here for examination and re- 
vision the judgment of the State Court. 
|g ^' These propositions are new in the juris- 
prudence of the United States, as well as of 
thestates, and the supremacy of the state courts 
over the courts of the United States, in cases 
arising under the Constitution and laws of the 
United States, is now for the first time as- 
serted and acted upon in the Supremo Court 
^ of a state!!" 

It seems that the Federal Court was unani- 
mous in the decision they made, and although 
they say "we think it unnecessary to discuss 
this question" (that court having on several 
occasions decided it) still, as 

"We [the Judges] are not willing to be mis- 
understood, it is proper to say, that in the 
judgment of this court, the Act of Congress, 
commonly called the Fugitive Slave Law, is, 
in all its provisions, fully authorized by the 
constitution of the United States." — 21 How- 
ard, pp. 514-26. 

The judgment of the State court was there- 
fore reversed. 

After this decision was announced. Booth 
was re-arrested, and the Republican Legisla- 
ture having in the meantime passed a law for- 
bidding the use of jails in the State for such 



purposes, he was confined in an apartment of 
the Milwaukee United States Custom House, to 
serve out his sentence. 

After he had thus been in durau'je vile for 
some time, a Republican mob, headed by one 
Edward Daniels, [who was afterwards appoint- 
ed by Gov Randall as Colonel of the 1st Wis- 
consin Cavalry] forcibly rescued him from hie 
confinement, when Booth took refuge among 
his disunion friends at Ripon, an intensely ab- 
olition district in the interior of the State. To 
this place he was followed by the Deputy Uni- 
ted States marshal who sought, in the dis- 
charge of his ofiicial duty to arrest him, but 
the said marshal was set upon by an armed 
mob of Abolitionists, was roughly handled, 
and on one occasion, barely escaped with his 
life. 

For a long while the oflicers of the law were 
baflled in their efforts to retake the prisoner. 
The Abolitionists had broken open the Arsenal 
at Fond du Lac and seized the arms therein, 
which enabled them to keep at baj' the Federal 
officers, and intimidate all opposition. 

Finally, fey mere strategy Booth was cap- 
tured and replaced in the Custom House at 
Milwaukee, where he was thoroughly guarded 
and kept till near the close of Mr. Buchanan's 
administration, when he was finally pardoned 
by that functionary. 

Such in brief is the history of the Booth 
war, wherein the whole Republican party of 
the state acted the most vindictive and trea' 
sonable part. AVe have been thus particular to 
note the dates and progress of the revolution, 
that the reader may be the better able to ap- 
ereciate contemporaneous events, all tending 
to the same general end — resistance to law and 
defiance to constitutional authorities — which 
we shall proceed to delineate. 

The Hon. Byrox Paine, now one of the 
Justices of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, 
as we have seen, was BooTn's counsel. The 
closing of his speech on the occasion was pub- 
lished in nearly all the Republican jsapers as 
an "eloquent extract." We copy the following 
portion of it from the Wisconsin State Jour- 
nal, the central organ of the party in the state, 
of January 31, 1855. In denouncing the fu- 
gitive law, while that law, in all its ports, was 
then before the highest tribunal of the land for 
adjudication, he assured the jury, 

"No, gentlemen, the people of this country 
never will obey this law — and on the spirit 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK. 



77 



which prompts to this disobedience, I hang all 
my hopes for the perpetuation of our liberties. 
* *■ * Our country is passing through a 
fiery ordeal. Men may weakly shut their eyes 
to the truth, but it cannot be disguised. They 
may cry peace! peace! but that ivill not still 
the raging waves of the ocean. * * If we 
are to have a government of force, that exe- 
cutes is laws with bristling bayonets, and bel- 
lowing cannon, and troops red with the blood of 
the people, it will be to the institution of 
slavery we shall owe it." 

It is unfortunate that Mr. Paine did not tell 
the jury that there need be no execution of the 
laws by "bristling bayonets," if his partizans 
would obey the laws, and not follow in the 
wake of South Carolina nullification. But 



"You may commit this defendant to prison, 
but think you there is a man within the juris- 
diction of' this court, that for this, would 
sooner oherj the fagilive acf-f 

Thus was the threat thrown out. that if the 
jury did convict Booth, he and his partizans 
would continue to resist the fugitive law. 

That speech was the lever that placed Mr. 
Paine on the supreme bench. He had had no 
such legal experience and reputation as would 
entitle him to such a responsible position. No 
tongue had lisped his name — no pen had chron- 
icled his fitness for such high honors, till the 
denouement of that "maiden speech," which 
was attuned to the revolutionary spirit that had 
possesion of his party. Gen. PiUfus King, 
editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel, and Horace 
RuDLEE, editor of the State Journal, with 
others of the State Central Committee, issued 
an address to the people, calling on them to 
sustain Mr. Paine for Judge, and basing his 
qualification? on his opposition to the Fugitive 
Law; and the press of that party throughout 
the state urged his "claims" on that ground 
exclusively. Indeed, the only real issue be- 
tween the two parties was support of law and 
order on the part of me Democrats, and oppo- 
sition to particular laws on the part of the Re- 
publicans. 

The Republicans organized '■•Rescue Lcajucs'^ 
in different portions of the state, and amassed 
a '■'■Rescue Fund,'^ for the purpose of aiding 
and abetting the violators of law. Rufus 
King was chairman of the Rescue Fund League 
in Milwaukee, and on the 13th of February, 
1855, issued an address, or circular, to the 
faithful from which we select the following: 

"The committee have only to recommend, in 



conclusion, to their fellow-citizens of Wiscon- 
sin, that an organization be efiected in each 
school district in the state, and a sub-commit- 
tee appointed to collect and forward without 
delay to the address of Mr. E. D. Holton, 
whatever sums the lovers of justice and liber- 
ty may be disposed to give in aid of the "Res- 
cue Friends Fund." They le^ve it to friends 
and sympathisers out of the state to determine 
in what time and manner their contributions 
shall be made, with the single remark, that 
whatever is given will be thankfully received 
and faithfully applied. 

"By order of Committee, 11UFU3 KIXG, Ch'n. 

' EiiWARD D. UoLToK, Tre.isureT. 
' '-Jlihvuukee, Feb. 12, 186.^." 

The following was the committee: — Rufus 
King, John H. Tweedy, Edward D. Holton, 
Edward Wunderlt, Edwin Palmer, (now 
collector at Milwaukee,) of Milwaukee, F. W. 
D. Beknabd of Racine, and David Taylor 
of Sheboygan, (now circuit judge) — all leading 
Repulicans. 

The Republicans of Racine county held a 
meeting at Ives' Grove, on the 5th of January, 
1856, to organize "a County League and unite 
for the ovcrthroio of the elavc oligarchy of the 
country.''^ The following is the 7th resolution 
unanimously adopted: 

^'■Resolved, That we will stand by the Rescu- 
ers of Glover, with our influence, our purse, 
and our right arms, and no court shall crush 
them — no prison walla or bars shall ever con- 
fine thcm,'^ &c. 

This was mnounccd in the Racine Republi- 
can paper, with a florish of trumpets, and the 
editor set forth that ''a great number of dele- 
gates were in attendance." 

On the 25th of January, 1855, immediately 
on the conviction of Booth and Rycbaft, the 
StatJ Journal, the court organ of the party, 
said : 

"Here are two citizens of our State impris- 
oned and fined for what ninety-nine 07ie hu?i- 
drethi of the people will declare a noble act. 

* * The whole people [meaning the Re- 
publicans, of course,] rejoiced at the escape of 
Glover, and almost unanimously applauded 
the conduct of the rescuers. Should another 
similar outrage [that is should a Southern man 
claim a run away slave, under the constitution] 
upon humanity occur in Milwaukee to-day, a 
similar course would be pursued." 

On the 26th of July, 1855, a mass meeting 
of Republicans was held in Milwaukee, to en- 
courage resistance to law, which was an- 
nounced in flaming letters by the State Jour- 
nal on the 31st, and in other leading Republi- 
can papers, who endorsed the meeting in all 



78 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



its acts. The first resolution of the meeting 
declares it to be an outrage to empanel a jury- 
to try such cases, &c. 

'•Resolved, That we desire to record an ear- 
nest and emphatic protest against the manner 
as well as results of the recent rescue trials in 
this city — that we regard the course pursued 
by the officers of the United States Court, in 
empanneling the grand and petit jurors as a 
gross and inexcusable outrage upon law and 
right; * * * that we sympathise deeply 
with the victims of judicial tyranny, official 
■wrong and oppression, and unconstitutional 
legislation; that our hearts are ivith them in 
the prison in which they have been confined, 
and our hands are ready to liquidate the pen- 
alties imposed upon them." 

If Booth's fine could have been paid by res- 
olutions, it would have been instantly "liqui- 
dated." but these selfish politicians could write 
declamatory and treasonable resolutions easier 
than they could "shell out" the means. Al- 
though they often resolved, and made a great 
ado for political effect, they failed to pay 
Booth's fine. Their patriotism never ex- 
tended so deep as their pockets. 

Judge Crawford, the only Democrat on the 
Supreme bench, refused to go with his brother 
judges, and declare the Fugitive Act unconsti- 
tutional. The State Journal, in alluding to 
the decision at the time, in speaking of Judge 
C.'s separate opinion, said: 

•'He considered the decision of the Supreme 
Court of the United States on this and all other 
matters as hi7iding on the State Courts." 

The Journal continued: 

"Justice Smith's opinion was lengthy and 
covered the whole ground. He reiterates his 
former views relative to the unconstitutionality 
of the Fugitive Act. He took a very decided 
position with regard to State Rights, and held 
that the United States Courts had no juris- 
diction, except in matters where jurisdiction 
was clearly granted them by the constitution 
[but Acts of Congress gave them no juris- 
diction, if Republican judges did not like those 
acts!] The State courts must protect the 
■rights and liberties of their citizens, and if in 
the prosecution of their duty, they were 
brought in collision with the United States 
Courts, no dangerous consequences would en- 
sue." 

That is, no dangerous consequences would 
ensue, if the Republican party of Wisconsin 
were not interfered with in nullifying laws. 
The same article concludes: 

"The man Glover was borne [by Republican 
law breakers] beyond the reach of his hunters; 
the popular heart was stirred [by politicians 



and nobody else] to its lowest depths: and after 
this di&play of the quality of Southern chival- 
ry, no slave hunter need hereafter pursue his 
fugitive human chattels across the Southern 
boundary of Wisconsin with any hope of suc- 
cess." 

In this connection, we /copy the following 
from a document not respected by the Republi- 
cans of Wisconsin: 

"No person held to service or labor in one 
State, under the laws thereof, escaping into 
another; shall in consequence of any law or 
regulation therein, be discharged from such 
service or labor, but hut shall he delivered up 
upon claim of the piarty to whom such service 
or labor may be due." — Art. IV, Sec. II, Con- 
stitution United States. 

In this connection,, we present the honest 
opinions and declaration of an honest, though 
dangerous abolitionist. Mr. Lloxd Gakrison 
was summoned before the committee of Feder- 
al Relations of the Massachusetts Legislature, 
to give his views on the pending bills to nullify 
the Fugitive Act. They had worked up this, 
that and the other excuse, indigenous to abo- 
lition climates, as reasons why the Fugitive 
Act was unconstitutional, &c. Mr. Garrison 
answered them in the following manner: 

"I cannot, gentlemen, place the same con- 
struction upon the constitution, respecting the 
rendition of fugitive slaves, which my res- 
pected friend, Mr. Sewall, has donC; I cannot 
plead that it is not in the bond to give up the 
fugitive slave. It is for those who can to'do so — 
for myself, I cannot o«^/ace this nation, and 
say that for seventy years, it has never under- 
stood its own constitution, in this particular. I 
believe that Massachusetts consented, with her 
eyes open, and for the sake of making a Union 
with the South possible, to allow the slave 
hunter to come here and take his proj^erty; and 
lU'Ouldnot spend one moment in attempting to 
argue, on the icords of the Constitution, that toe 
have never agreed to do any such thing. 1 believe 
that the t«^<;n^ of the bargain, ivhatcvcrmay be 
the language used, and I would not try to get 
rid of an obligation, however unjust, by false 
interpretation of the instrument. 

"I believe Washington, Franklin. Hamilton, 
Jefferson, Jay and Marshall, and all those who 
made the Constitution, and the people who 
adopted it, understood what they were about. 
They knew that they agreed to allow a slave 
representation in Congress, yet the words are 
are not to be found in the Constitution. They 
intelligently agreed and deliberately agreed 
that the foreign slave trade should be prosecu- 
ted for the term of twenty years [but it would 
not for more than twelve years, but for the vote 
and influence of Massachusetts] without Con- 
gressional intervention; yet, they did not allow 
the term 'slave trade' "to be inserted in the 
Constitution. They alsounderstandingly agreed 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



79 



that slaves tcho should escape from their masters 
into other states, should hegiven vp. Why, gen- 
tlemen, the Fugitive Slave law itself, which 
creates such uni\ ersal disgust anrl horror [only 
by the politicians for political effect] does not 
contain the words 'runaway slave,' or 'slave 
holder,' or 'slave catcher;" in its language it 
is entirely unexceptionable. It is the language 
of the. Constitution of the United States! 

''What a waste of time and effort it would 
be to argue, from tlie phraseology of that ne- 
farious law, that it was never designed by 
Congress to refer to fugitive slaves! Enough^ 
that for seventy gears, all the courts, all the 
legislatures, all the congresses, and all the 
people, have unerstood these compromises of the 
Constitution in precisely the same wjy, and 
pronou7iced them ohligalory! It is too late, 
therefore, to get up a new and unwarrantable 
construction of the Constitution, in order to 
justify us in doing right and obliging God! — 
All 1 have to say is, as one holding loyalty to 
God, to be paramount in all cases, I care not, 
though every word in the Constitution be for 
slavery, or every sentence an argument on our 
part to stand by it; in that case it is all null 
and void, and a crime of the deepest dye for us 
to carry it out, and so I stand here on the 
ground of eternal justice, and appeal to the 
law of the living God, and ask you to do like- 
wise." 

Give us honesty before hypocracy. We 
therefore prefer Garrison, as a consistent, 
outspoken, bold, bad man, to all those who 
hypocritically strike down the Constitution on 
pretext of saving it. 

THE HABEAS CORPUS AND JURY TRIAL FOR 
NEGROES. 

The Milwaukee Sentinel, the leading Re- 
publican organ in the State, in speaking of 
the decision of our Supreme Court in the res- 
cue cases, said: 

"Wisconsin is, and will remain a, free State, 
and while she claims no right, and cherishes 
no desire to intermeddle in the domestic affairs 
of her sister sovereignties, she will at least as- 
sert and exercise at all times, and at every haz- 
ard the power to protect her own citizens, and 
to maintain and defend, in all their integrity, 
the writ of habeas corpus and right of trial by 
jury." 

This was said in reference to the trial of 
black men, in 1854, but in 1863, the same pa- 
per gloried in the arrest and imprisonment of 
white men, without charge, judge, jury, or 
trial. As we cannot believe the Republicans 
really esteem black men higher than they do 
white men, we are led to take their vaporings in 
18-54-5, as nothing but so much fuel to fan the 
flame of popular excitement and dissolution. 



OPPOSITION TO THE GENERAL GOVERNMBNT 
— A POLITICAL TEST. 

As proof that faith in the decision of the 
Supreme Court, and consequently organized 
political opposition to the General Govern- 
ment, in the execution of its laws, was made 
the test of political orthodoxy, we quote from 
the Wisconsin State Journal, the central Re- 
publican organ of the State, of February 15, 
1855. 

It must be noted, that Judge Crawford, a 
Democrat, whose term of office was about to 
expire, had been called upon by the conserva- 
tives of all parties to become a candidate for 
re-election. As a man of ability and upright- 
ness of character, he was pre-eminent. Even 
the "court organ," the Jounuil. was com- 
pelled to thus speak of him: 

"It is of very great importance that a worthy 
man, and one competent to discharge the high 
responsibilities of the station, should be 
chosen. Judge Crawford is a man of fair abil- 
ities, of good address, possessing the elements 
of personal popularity in a high degree. When 
we have once got a good man upon the Supreme 
bench, good policy dictates that he should be 
kept there, until there is some good reason for 
filling his place with another. There is one 
objection, however, to Mr. Crawford — his po- 
sitioji xcith regard to the Fugitive Slave Act. — 
[That is, he had decided that he, as a judge 
of an inferiDr tribunal was bound by the de- 
cisions of the Federal Supreme Court. T hat 
was his only offense.] A very groat majority 
of the people of the State, sustain most cordi- 
ally the opinions of the Chief Justice (Whiton) 
and Justice Smith. They will be aware that 
the election of Judge Crawford will go abroad, 
and will be received at Washington by the 
present dough-face Administration. [The 
"government" in modern nomenclature,] as 
an endorsement of the people of Wisconsin of 
the opinion, in which Judge Crawford dissent- 
ed, from the decision of the court, as to the 
unconstitutionality of that act. We should by 
no means concede that it was such an endorse- 
ment, in case Judge Crawford were elected, 
but that it will be declared so abroad, every 
man who knows anything will acknowledge. 

"Under these circumstances, there will be op- 
position to his (Judge C"s) election. There 
should be opposition. If the people of Wis- 
consin desire to sustain the manly, fearless and 
j'^ist position of the Supreme Court, they 
should elect some man whose past course will 
be deemed a guarantee by them, that he will 
sustain the decision of a majority of the court! 
If they desire that Wisconsin should continue 
to occupy, as she now occupies an open uncom- 
promising position of hostilit)j to the further 
extensisn of slavery, and to the spread of that 
institution throughout the northern and free 
free states as a national institution [a common 



80 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



chiM may understand the drift of this hypo- 
critical rhodomontade] which is the effect of 
the fugitive act (f it be constitutional — tliey 
will feel themselves bound to oppose the re- 
election of Judge Crawford. We regret to be 
obliged to take this ground. [Here we see the 
power of party drill.] Personally we should 
gladly see him (Judge C.) re-elected, but hav- 
ing endorsed the deetsion of the Judges, and 
rejoiced ovr it as a grtat triumph of freedom 
—a decision of which the state may well feel 
jiroud, consistency and a due regard to princi- 
ple, compel us to beliere this course the only 
proper one.'' 

Now, to say nothing of the bad policy of 
making judicial decisions in the political cau- 
cus room, and selecting candidates cut and 
dried to annouce them, the reader will not fail 
to see in the foregoing a preconcerted political 
move to so shape the judiciary of the state as 
to play into the hands of the political majority, 
in its treasonable role of '"defiance" to the 
powers of the General GoTernment. 

FURTHER EVIUEXCE OF TUB POLITICAL CON- 
SPIRACY. 

The Republican papers of the state general- 
ly, during the judicial elections, have made the 
Supreme Court decision the alpha and omega 
of their political creed. We select a few spe- 
cimens: 

The Platte^illc jlwerjcan. rep., opposed Judge 
Crawford and f^ivored Judge Cole: — 

"Whose opi7iio?is in regard to th& Fugitive 
Slave Act are more nearly in accordance with 
the views of the majority ef the voters of the 
state than Mr. Crawford, who conflicts with 
the other Judges of the Supreme Court, in 
deeming the Fugitive Slave Act, with all its 
obnoxious provisions, its denial of the writ of 
habeas corpus, and trial by jury, perfectly con- 
stitutional." 

The Columbus Journal (Rep.) said: 

"Exert that faculty which God has given 
you, sound common sense, and we have no 
fears of the result. Come up to the polls man- 
fully on the 3d of April next, and show the 
world that you are not bound hands and feet 
to the slave-holders', slave-hunters', and 
slave-catchers' car, to be dragged, Hector- 
like, not around the walls of Troy, but the 
crumbling walls of your temple of liberty." 

The Monroe Sentinel (Rep.) seemed to have 
an impression that the Supreme Court had at 
that time decided the fugitive ;.:t constitution- 
al, for it said: 

"Recollect that the Supreme Court of the 
United States, and all its branches, is placed 
beyond the reach of the will of the people. — 
The Court, in its pride of place and irrespon- 



sible power, has little sympathy with the 
cause of human freedom. All laws which tend 
to aggrandize the power of the General Gov- 
ernment meet with the sympathy of that Court, 
for it is a part of that General Government; 
and here one of the frailties of human nature, 
selfishness, has a strong position from which 
to argue the aggrandizement of the whole— 

" To mnke Die worse appear the better side." 

"The duty, as well as the interest of this 
generation, the interests of posterity, all com- 
bine to create a necessity for bringing back the 
judicial tribunals of the country, as rapidly as 
possible, to the standard of the Constitution 
as it reads and is construed by its authors and 
framers." 

The State Journal of March Slst, said: 

"When Messrs. Cole and Crawford were first 
called out, we supposed the real question was 
mainly, whether the people of this State ivere 
in favor of the enforcement of the Fugitive 
Slave Act in our State or not; whether the 
decision of a majority of the Supreme Court, 
by which a protecting »gis was interposed be- 
tween the liberties of her citizens and a tyran- 
ical and unconstitutional statute, were to be 
sustained." 

The Appleton Crescent, a Democratic paper, 
though speaking well of Judge Cole, gave us 
to understand it understood the "issue." as 
follows: 

"No objection can be urged against him, 
unless it is that Judge Crawford has a de- 
cided advantage over him on account of two 
years' experience as a member of the Supreme 
Court, and that Mr. Cole isa staunch believer 
in the unconstitutionality of the Fugitive Slave 
Act." 

This was thoroughly understood by all class- 
es to be the issue — the Democrats taking 
ground in favor of law because it was Law, as 
interpreted by the highest judicial tribunal 
— the Republicans taking ground against law, 
because they could make political capital by 
"positively bidding defiance' to the General 
Government. 

XOTIIING to sustain JUDGE SJIlTIl's OPINION. 

Judge Smith, in reading his decision, which 
thus placed Wisconsin in open hostility to the 
General Government, seemed to ignore the 
legal maxim of stare de cisis, and also seemed 
to scout the idea of res adjuclicala. His 
"opinion" stands alone, with not a prop to 
sustain it, save the fiat of the political club 
room. The State Journal, in alluding to his 
decision at the time, said: 

"It is to be regretted that the haste with 
which the opinion was prepared, rendered it 



I 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



81 



imp(^siblc to fortify the position taken by 
Judge Smith with reference to the authorities 
upon which they are founded, and which should 
accompany an opinion of so much importance." 

The Hon. Timothy 0. Howe, (now U. S. 
Senator) who was then considered conserva- 
tive, was a member of the Republican State 
Convention to appoint delegates to the Nation" 
al Convention at Chicago, and also when the 
case of Judge Dixon came up. wherein the 
Judge had rendered a decision contrary to 
Judge Smith. In reply to Carl ScnuRz,who 
went the whole Red Republican figure for the 
SjiiTH'State-rights doctrine, Senator Howe 
said: 

''I have seen a pamphlet here which gave 
more than two hundred cases^ quoted from nil 
the states of the Union, that sustain the posi- 
tion of Judge Dixon, and not one could be 
found in opposition." 

JUDGE SMITH SCOUTS THE CONSRnUKXCES OF 
HIS DECISION. 

The Democracy feared the dreadful conse- 
quences of this revolutionary spirit, and they 
predicted that it would be the parent of collis- 
ion between the State and-the General Govern- 
ment, of civil discord, revolution and dissolu- 
tion, which predictions were scofi'ed at by the 
Abolitionists at the time, and Judge Smith, in 
a note to his published opinion in the Booth 
case, takes occasion to treat these fears as ill 
grounded, ..^c. He says: 

"It is the practice, of late, to hold up before 
the mind such frightful pictures of 'collision,'" 
'resistance,' 'civil discord,' 'revolution,' 'an- 
archy,' and 'dissolution,' that it would seem, 
that any effort of resistance to the exercise of 
unauthorized power, and every attempt to faith- 
fully execute official duty, imposed by the con- 
stitution and laws, is to be dreaded as an ap- 
proach to treason — that any diversity of opinion 
or action between the functionaries of the two 
governments must necessarily terminate in a 
dissolution of the Union * * * * 
But the real danger to the Union consists, not 
so much in resistance to laws constitutionally 
enacted, as in acquiescence in measures which 
violate the constitution." 

And after reciting sundry former "collis- 
ions" between the General and the State Gov- 
ernments, the Judge comes t» the conclusion 
that tkose "collisions" arc just the thing to 
keep the Union together. He says : 

"But I adduce these facts to show, that these 
'collisions,' as they are now called, but which 

anmcrelij tJie healthful oj^eration of (he checks 
and balances v.-hich the Constitution has wizeh/ 



provided, arc not the frightful things which 
they are represented to be." 

And he congratulates certain "functiona- 
ries" that "the Union still survives." 

Wonder what the Judge thinks now of the 
"check and balances" which he inaugurated 
to prevent dissolution ? 

From the great array of facts before us, we 
have not a particle of doubt that from 1854 to 
18.59, the leadine; Republicans of this state 
were in conspiracy to break up the Union. 

1st. Look at their initiation of mobs against 
the officers of the law 

2d. The Supreme Court discharging those 
mobocrats in defiance of law declared consti- 
tutional in all its points, by the highest court 
known to our laws. 

3d. The making this action the test for office 
by the Republicans. 

4th. The recommendation by Gov. Randall 
in his message, of resistance to the General 
Government 

5th. The repetition of that recommendation. 

6th. The resolutions of the Legislature of 
1859, which bid "positive defiance" to the 
General Government, Supreme Court and all. 

7th. The subsequent mobs that took the law 
into their own hands to enforce the revolution- 
ary decrees of*he court, the legislature and 
the secession politicians. 

THE KADICALS WANT A DISSOLUTION. 

At a Republican Convention held at Munroe, 
Green county, Wisconsin, in August, 1856, the 
fellowing resolution was passed: 

'■^Resolved, That it is the duti/ of the Is'orth, 
in case they fail in electing a President and 
Congress that whill restore freedom to Kansas, 
to revolutionize the G over riment!''^ 

The author of this treasonable resolution was 
subsequently placed in several responsible po- 
sitions by the Republican party. Green coun- 
ty has been intensely Republican since the or- 
ganization of that party. 

"dissolution no misfohtune " 

The Wisconsin State Journal, of July 8, 

1854, said: 

"Now, we believe that if slavery is allowed 
to broaden and fortify itself without restriction, 
to grow insolent, intolerant and prescriptive, 
through the timid acquiescence of the free 
states, to increase in boldness and greed, for 
the next quarter of a century in the same ra- 
tio that it has for the past, that the ends 
sought to be accomplished in the formation of 



82 



FIVTC HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



the Union will no longer be attained. Dis- 
union then would certainly be no misfortune!^ ^ 

If disunion was not in tlie heart, it would not 
escape from the lips. 

"We repeat the assertion, that the Union is 
not ivorth a copper to the North in any point 
of vieu\ but is a perpetual sacrifice of both 
money and morals, an assertion we can make 
good." — Mil. Free Democrat, 1859. 

MORE TREASON CROPPING OUT. 

The Eikhorn, (Wis) Independent, a violent 
Republican sheet, in 1859, said: 

"The Union may be dissolved, hut slavery 
must die, and if it can only die or be restrict- 
ed to its present limits, through a dissolution 
of the Union, then in the name of the Fram- 
ers of the Union, who made it to secure the 
blessings of liberty, let the Union be dissol- 
ved.'"' 

A CRIME TO SUSTAIN TUE LAW AS EXPOUND- 
ED BY TUE EEDERAL COURT. 

Just after the Supreme Court of the United 
States had decided the Deed Scott case, the 
Republicans of Racine county held a grand 
council, and 

Resolved, That the decision of the Supreme 
Court in the Dred Scott case, and the en- 
dorsement thereof by the Democratic party, 
is an insult to the memory of the founders of 
our country— a, violation of the plainest prin- 
ciples of natural and constitutional law — a 
perversion of history and an encroachment 
upon the rights of the States, and a blow 
struck at the inalienble rights of man." 

So much for the arrogance of a political 
party that foiled to inform the world from 
whence they derived their authority, to sit in 
judgment to revise the "natural laws" of God, 
and the decisions of the Supreme Court of the 
United States. 

JUDGE PAINE "elected WITH SPECIAL KE- 
FEF.ENCE TD HIS VIEWS. 

AVe have before stated that Judge Paine 
was elected to the Supreme Bench, not so much 
on account of his judicial lore, as because he 
was pre-committed against the validity of the 
Fugitive law, or because his supporters award- 
ed him that position. When the second Booth 
case came before the Court, Judge P . from a pro- 
fessional and judicial sense of the impropriety, 
refused to sit in the case, having been counsel 
for the defendant. For this the State Rights 
disunionists soundly ber-ated him, as it left the 
Court without a majority to get up an actual 
conflict with the General Government. 



The next morning after Judge P.vsne re- 
fused to sit in the case, the Milwaukee Free 
Democrat, a most violent Republican sheet, is- 
sued the following bull of excommunication: 

"The news from Madison informs us that 
Judge Paine refuses to sit in the habeas corpus 
with reference to Booth, leaving the decision 
of the case to Cole and Dickson. The result 
of this will probably be, the ultimate failure of 
the application [which was true, and the only 
thing that saved the State from the terrors of 
civil war.] The State Rights men of the State 
have got themselves into a peculiar position. 
With a majority of from seven to twelve thous- 
and in the State, they are, nevertheless, par- 
alyzed and powerless. [This shows that they 
relied on the caucus-room to govern the bench. 1 
The}', themselves, appear to have made a mis- 
tale in electing a man to the bench, who finds 
himself unable to be of any service in the mat- 
ter, for which almost exclusively he vas pre- 
ferred to many others; while the Governor 
finds ho made a mistake with reference to his 
appoi-ntec (Dickson.) Doubtless the delicacy of 
Judge Paine will be appreciated by the pro- 
fession, but we fear the great mass of the peo- 
ple [the politicians] will fail to understand it. 
He is not ruled ofif by any statute or positive 
prohibition. He was once counsel for Booth in 
connection with this matter, though not upon 
this particular point, if we understand it, and 
retires in obedience to custom or common law. 
lie was elected, however, tvith special reference 
to his views on this point. His views are no 
better known than those of Cole, who has once 
decided the case." 

THE disunionists IN MASS CONVENTION. 

Several years ago the Republicans held a 
Mass State Convention, and closed their reso- 
lutions by declaring that the decision of the 
Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case: 

"Has absolved the state from all obligation 
to regard them [fugitives from labor] as be- 
longing to that class of "persons" who are to 
be delivered up as owing service or labor." 

Capt. Brown, of Kansas, and Gerrit 
Smith aderessed the Convention. Booth was 
Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions. 
Several collections were taken up to aid the 
spread of the "cause" in Kansas and Ken- 
tucky. 

THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT AGAIN DEFIED. 

January 18-57 the Republicans put forth a 
"platform," from which we take the following 
"plank." The heading or preamble sets out 
that 

"The people of Wisconsin in Mass Conven- 
tion assembled, in view of the alarming en- 
croachments of the slave power, manifested 
through the Legislative, Executive and Jiidi- 



SCRAPS FROM Mx SCRAP-BOOK. 



83 



cial Departments of the Federal Government,'"' 
&c. 

One of the planks is the following: 

'■'That we cling to the sovereignty and rights 
of the states and to the pretecting power of the 
state courts against the encroachments aniusur- 
pations of the Federal Government^ as the sheet 
anchor of our liberties, and that we pledge 
ourselves to sustain the state courts and the 
state government in protecting the liberties of 
the people [that is the liberty of the politi- 
cians to violate law! at all hazards and in all 
emergencifff" 

REPUBLICANS QUOTE SOUTHERN KULLIFIERS 
AS PROPER EXEMPLARS. 

The following article appeared in the Mil- 
waukee Free Democrat. It shows from what 
seurce the Republicans drew their nullification 
sustenance: 

"Supreme Court op Georgia. — We per- 
ceive from our Georgia exchanges that Judge 
Benning decided that the Supreme Court of 
Georgia is co-equal and co-ordinate with the 
Supreme Court of the United States, and not 
inferior and subordinate to that Court; that 
as to the reserved powers, the Sta/e Court is 
supreme; that as to the delegate powers, the 
United States Court is supreme; that as to the 
powers both delegated and reserved — concur- 
rent poivers — botii Courts, in the language of 
Hamilton, are 'equally supreme,' and as a con- 
sequence, the Supreme Court of the United 
States has no jurisdiction over the Supreme 
Court of Georgia, and cannot therefore give it 
an order, or make it a precedent,''^ — Charleston 
(S. C.) paper. 

'•The above is the precise doctrine laid down 
by Mr. Justice Smith, of our Supreme Court, 
in his opinion announced verbally from written 
notes, iu the case of S. M. Booth's petition for 
Jiaheas corpus, carried to Supreme Court by 
Ableman on writ of error. And it is undoubt- 
edly the true doctrine. For if the Supreme 
Court — the highest judicial tribunal of the 
state — is inferior to that of the United States, 
the sovereignty of the state represented by that 
tribunal must be an inferior sovereignty, which 
would be no sovereignty. 

"The doctrine announced by the Georgia 
Judge, [and by Judge Smith, is to the effect 
that the opinions and decisions of the Supreme 
Court of the United States were of no more 
linding force on the Supreme Courts of the 
states than are the opinions and decisions of the 
latter on the former, and that neither have any 
more binding force on the other than the de- 
cisions of the highest court of England would 
have to control the action of the highest court 
of France. Each within its own sphere is the 
creation of a distinct sovereignty, between 
whom there is neither superiority nor inferior- 
ity, but exact equality. But the sphere of the 
action of these sovereignties is restricted, or 
limited by the provisions of the compact be- 



tween the states, granting to the United States 
certain powers or attributes of sovereignty. and 
to that extent the states severally divested 
themselves of those powers and attributes, but 
all powers not so granted are withheld by the 
states severally. ****-s--x-4r* 
"Such have been the uniform doctrines of 
the most brilliant statesmen and party leaders 
of the South, and such are the onJu doctrines 
by which this Federal Government can be 
maintained. 

"The positions taken by Judge Smith are 
eminently in the right."' 

gov. RANDALL RECOMMENDS ''RESISTANCE.'' 

Governor Randall, in his message to the 
Wisconstn Legislature of 1858, said : 

•'The tendency of the action of the Federal 
Government has been for many years, aided by 
the Federal Courts, to centralization, and to 
an absorption of a large share of the soverign- 
ty of the States. It has tri-passed upon the 
reserved rights of the States and the people 
— assuming a jurisdiction over them in 
their exercise of power undelegated. 
The Federal Government, so far as there is 
any sovereignty under our form of Govern- 
ment, is sovereign and independent in the ex- 
ercise of its delegated powers, and the States 
are' sovereign and independent in the exercise 
of their reserved powers. The safety of the 
States in the exercise of these powers, in de- 
fense of the lives and properties and liberties 
of the people, demands a fair, deliberate op- 
position and resistance to any alic?npt at usur- 
pation or aggression [of which let the Repub- 
licans be the sole judges] by the Federal Gov- 
ernment, its Courts, its officers, ov agents upon, 
the reserved rights of the States or the people.^' 

And in his message to the Legislature of 
1859, he thus reiterates his views: 

"My views, as expressed in my last annual 
Message, in regard to the relative powers and 
duties of the State and Federal Governments," 
&c., "remain unchanged." 

now THESE disunion recommendations 

WERE RESPONDED TO. 

After having pressed this matter close upon 
the Legislature for two sessions, that body, 
being "full iu the beliefj" moved in the mat- 
ter, during its session of 1859. Mr. N. S. 
Murphy, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, 
introduced a series of "backbone" resolutions, 
on the 12th of March, which were thus noticed 
by the State Journal of that day: 

"REFRESHING' — A ROUSER. 

"Mr. N. S. Mui-phy introduced a resolution 
brim full of genuine Republican doctrine upon 
the subject of the illegality and unconstitu- 
tionality of theproeeding of the U. S. Court 
in relation to the case of S. M. Booth, which 



84 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



resolution assured the Assembly that the gal- 
lant young Virginian still lives, and is sound 
on the 'goose question.' " 

Wen these resolutions came up in the after- 
noon, they were referred to the Committee on 
Federal Relations, of which Mr. A. E. Bovay 
was Chairman, and on the 16th of March Mr. 
B. reported by substitute, which was the fol- 
lowing, and which were passed by a strict 
party vote — 47 to 37. See p. 892, Assemlhj 
Journal 1859. 

'•POSITIA'E defiance" TO THE GENERAL 
GOVERNMENT. 

Here are the resolutions as finally passed: 

'■'' Joint Resolution relative io the decision of the 

United States Supreme Court, regarding the 

Supreme Court of Wisconsin. 

^'■Whereas, The Supreme Court of the United 
States has a««i/mc(/ appellate jurisdiction, in the 
matter of the application of Sherman M. 
Booth, for a writ of habeas corpus, presented 
and prosecuted to final judgment in the Su- 
preme Court of this State, and has, without 
process, [see before, why they could not get 
process '■] or any of the forms recognized by 
law, assumed the power to reverse this judg- 
ment, in a matter involving the personal liber- 
ty of the citizen, asserted by, and adjudged to 
him by the regular course of judicial proceed- 
ings upon the great writ of liberty, secured to 
the people of each State by the constitution of 
the United States. 

"-4«i Whereas, Such assumptiou of power 
and authority by the Supreme Court of the 
United States to become the final arbiter of 
the liberty of the citizen, and to override and 
nullify the the judgments of the State Courts' 
declaration thereof, is in direct conflict with 
that provision of the constitution of the United 
States which secures to the people the benefits 
of the writ of habeas corpus, therefore 

'■'■Resolved, the Senate concurring. That we 
regard the action of the Supreme Court of the 
United States in assuming jurisdiction in the 
case before mentioned, as an arbitrary act of 
power unauthorized by the Constitution and 
virtually superceding the benefit of the writ of 
habeas corpus, and pi'ostrating the rights and 
liberties of the people, at the foot of unlimited 
power. 

'■'■Resolved. That this usurpation of jurisdic- 
tion by the Federal .Judiciary, in the said case, 
and without process, is an act of undelegated 
power, and therefore, without authority, void 
and of no force. 

'■'•Resolved^ That the Government framed by 
the Constitution of the United States, was not 
made the exclusive or final judge of the extent 
of the powers delegated to itself [but that 
Wisconsin was] but that, as in all other cases, 
of compact among parties, having no common 
judge, each party has an equal right to judge 
for itself as well of infractions, as of the?«oc^fi 
and measure of redress. 



I 



'■^Resolved, That the principle and construe 
tion contended for, by the party which now 
rules in the counsels of the nation — that the 
General Government is the exclusive judge of 
the extent of the powers delegated to it, stop 
nothing short of despotism, since the discretion 
of those who administer the Government, and 
not the Constitution, would be the measure of 
their powers — that the several states which 
formed that instrument, being sovereign and 
independent, have the unquestionable right to 
judge of its infraction, and that a POSITIVE 
DEFIANCE of those sovereignties, of all un- 
authorized acts, done, or attempted to be done, 
under color of that instrument, is the rightful 
remedy.' 

"Approved March 19, 1859. 
(Signed,) "ALX. W. RANDALL, 

Governor.'^ 

MR. UORN's SUBSTITUTE VOTED DOWN. 

While these resolutions were pending, F. W. 
Horn, (Dem.) offered the following as a sub- 
stitute, which was rejected by ayes 36, noes 
49 — a strict party vote. Seep. 863 Assembly 
Journal, IS.'iQ. • 

'■^Whereas, The Supreme Court of the United 
States has totally reversed the decision of the 
Supreme Court of this State in the case of the 
United States against Sherman M. Booth ; 
and 

^'■Whereas, Every law abiding citizen, no 
matter what his private views and feelings may 
be, should acquiesce in the decisions of the 
highest tribunals known by the Constitution 
of the United States, to whom the interpreta- 
tion of the sacred document is especially con- 
fided; and 

Whereas, It would lead to anarchy and a 
dissolution of the Union, (how prophetic) if 
the interpretation of that instrument should be 
usurped by the different State Courts, in oppo- 
sition to the Supreme Court of the United 
States [this was the Democratic doctrine then, 
and not as the Journal asserted that our Su- 
preme Court could make no original decision"' 
of the kind] where it has been placed by those 
who mutually pledged to each other their "lives, 
their fortunes and their sacred honor;" there- M 
fore «| 

Resolved, by the Assembly, the Senate con- 
curring, That we ivill abide by the decisions of 
the Supreme Court of the United Stales declar- 
ed by said Court to be consUtutional, without 
regard to our own private views and feelings. 
— Seep. 778, Assembly Journal, 1859. 

This shows the determination of the Repub- 
licans of Wisconsin to '■'•positively defy'''' the 
*fhole power of the General Government, which 
they proceeded to execute, as we have seen, 
by sundry armed mobs, &c. 

SENAToa doolittle's views. 
In a speech by Senator Doolittle in the 
U. S. Senate February 24th, 1S60, he said: 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



85 



"The gi'eat question, in the science of 
American government is, when the jurisdic- 
tion of the state and federal governments came 
in conflict, who is to decide? It will never do 
to say that the decisions of the federal court 
should be received as conclusive. When it 
usurps power its decisions must not be respect- 
ed, and are binding upon nobody." 

Again: speaking of the writ of habeas cor- 
pus by state courts to persons arrested and 
held by virtue ef U. S. process, he said: 

"Add this doctrine of the Senator from 
Georgia, and there would be no constitutional 
limit upon his (a U. ^S. district judge's ) 
power — whether constitutional or unconstitu- 
tional — whether with or without authority of 
the United States; whether within or outside 
of his constitutional jurisdiction, with orsvith- 
out cause, by his warrant alone he could ar- 
rest any citizen of Wisconsin, try him, sen- 
tence him, even to dfath, and there is no ap- 
peal. No habeas corpus could reach the pris- 
oner, whether in the state prison or at the foot 
of the gallows! Where are we? In the Uni- 
ted States of America, or at St. Petersburg, 
under the power of an autocrat, whose will is 
law, or under the Constitution of the United 
States, which declares that no person shall be 
deprived of his liberty but by the process of 
law, which law must itself be subject always to 
the constitution of the United States?" 

Mr. DooLiTTLE don't talk thus now ; then 
it was -^ your ox," &c. — now a different rule 
is urged. 

By such arguments were the people of the 
state educated up to the standard of open re" 
sistance to the Federal power, and we have not 
the least doubt that had the Republicans failed 
in electing their candidate in 1860, they would, 
provided they had the same courage, have done 
precisely what South Carolina did in 1860 — 
and precisely what the Republicans of Green 
county pledged themselves to do in 1856. 

This chapter is a sad one — it galls our 
state pride to record it, but we should be false 
to truth and unjust to history, did we omit it. 
We trust that hereafter, the Republicans 6f 
Wisconsin will not have the face to claim all 
the loyalty and all the patrotism. May God 
forgive them for the wrongs they have done 
their counti'y. 

"like father, like son" THE HAKT- 

FORD CONVENTION AND WISCONSIN REPUB- 
LICANS. 

To show that the Republicans are chips from 
the old Federal and Nullification blocks, we 
select a paragraph from the report of the Hart- 
ford Convention. This Tory Convention of 
New England traitors assembled in the city of 



Hartford, on the 15th of December, 1315. It 
put fourth a disunion report, accompanied by a 
series of resolutions; from the former wo se- 
lect the followifig, seasoned with this apropos 
spice from Henry IV : 

" Treason is but trusted like ttie fox, 

Who, ne'er so taiue, so cherish'd, and lock'd up. 

Will iKive a wilJ trick of bis anrxdors.'^ 

"In cases of deliberate, dangerous and pal- 
pable 'infractions' of the Constitution, affect- 
ing the 'sovereignty' of a 'state' and the 'lib- 
erties' of the people, it is not only the right 
but the duty of each state to interpose its au- 
thority joT their protection, in the manner lest 
calculated to secure that end. AVhen emergen- 
cies occur which are either beyond the reach 
of judicial tribunals, or too pressing to admit 
of the delay incident to their forms, states, 
which have no common umpire, must be their 
own judges, and execute their own decisions.'' 

JUST WHAT THE SOUTH IS FIGHTING FOR. 

Upon which Pollard, author of the South- 
ern side of the Rebellion, remarks: 

"This is the doctrine ichich the South had 
always held from the beginning, and for which 
the South is now pouring out her blood and 
treasure!'' 

SOUTH CAROLINA ENDORSES JUDGE SMITH's 
OPINION. 

It will be observed that the substance of the 
Hartford Convention report, and the Republi- 
can resolutions of 1859, quoted above, are iden- 
tical, while many of the words emi^loyed are 
the same, as well -as certain phrases, leaving 
no doubt that their authors must have selected 
garbled sentences from the treasonable report 
of the Hartford Convention, as a foundation 
for their resolutions of "positive defiance." 
The only real difference is that the Wisconsin 
resolutions go deeper into resistance and posi- 
tive defiance than their Federal fathers. 

SOUTH CAROLINA QUOTES JUDGE SMITH. 

Mr. Rhett, of South Carolina, on the day 
that treasonable State seceded from the Union, 
thus endorsed the decision of Judge Sjiith, as 
good enough doctrine for South Carolina to go 
out of the Union on: 

"Sir, the North threaten to fight us back 
into the Union, after we shall have taken our 
stand for Southern Independence. They now 
deny the right of a State to judge of its own 
grievances and to apply its own remedies, not- 
withstanding for years, many of the Northern 
States, Wisconsin in particular, have asserted 
this right for themsclVes. I want no better li- 
cense for our action to-day than the decision of 
Judge Smith in the Rescue cases of AViscon- 
sin." 



86 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

KLPUBLICANS TRUE TO OLD FEDERAL INSTINCTS. 

Classification of parties, principles and arguinfuts, from 
179S to lS6.3...Thurlow Wood on Greeley. ..New York 
Tribune favors Secession. ..Greeley advociiliug Peace 
■nith Rebels. ..Mr. Lincoln Advocates the right of Se- 
cession. ..The Republican Congress vote down a Resolu- 
tion against a Dictatorship. ..The Ayes and Noes on that 
Subject. ..The Ccmstitution again the "Cause of all our 
Troubles". ..Complete overthrow of the Public Liljerties 
...From the New York World. ..Republicans Raise a 
"Higher Standard than the Stars and Strii>es"... Prefer 
"Their principles to Fifty Unions". ..Who Discourage 
Enlistments. ..Reference to Aboltition Yotes in Congress. 



DISLOT.\LTY AND REVOLUTIONARY .SPIRIT OF 
REPUBLICANS. 

[The crowd of other duties, and the necessary haste in 
■which these extracts have been collected— involving the 
perusal of hundreds of books and newspapers — render it 
quite impossible to place them in chronological order, but 
by proper headings it is believed they will be convenient 
for reference. — Compiler.] 

We have already published enough to show 
that the leaders of the great party opposed to 
the Democracy desire the dissolution of the 
Government, by any means, and have been la- 
boring to that end for seventy-five years. — 
Under all the dodges and guises of a change 
of name — shifting of ostensible purposes and 
objects, they have steadily pursued their de- 
structive course — using the same class of argu- 
ments, and resorting to the same class of means 
to accomplish their purpose. The Federalists 
of 1812, though professing a different line of 
policy, used the same class of arguments, and 
hurled the same species of denunciation against 
the Government and the principles on which it 
■was founded, as the Federals of 1798 — always 
professing to be for the Constitution — yet in- 
sisting that Congress, the Executive and the 
courts had placed a wronar construction on its 
meaning. The Federal Republican of 1821 
used the same class of arguments as the Fed- 
erals of 1812. The "Whig of 18.33 was true to 
the reasoning of his Federal Republican pro- 
genitors of 1824, while the Republican or "Un- 
ion" of the present era goes back to the Hart- 
ford Convention for the inspiration of his po- 
litical history, and while this class of men (the 
leaders — we do not mean all) profess, as did 
their Federal progenitors, to revere the Con- 
stitution, they scout the idea of ever again en- 
forcing it — laud those who wantonly violate it, 
and denounce as "traitors" and "copper- 
heads" all who are sincerely devoted to it "as 
it is," or desire to maintain the "Union as it 
was." Future generations, that may chance | 



to read the pages of this book, shall not have 
it to say we slandered the leaders of the Re- 
publican or "Union" party, for we shall let 
them speak for themselves, as Agrippa per- 
mitted Paul to plead his own case. If the 
well studied words and phrases of the leaders 
of the present party in power do not sustain 
our charge that they desire a dissolution of 
this Union, and have been using the slavery 
question as but a means to accomplish the end, 
then let the present and future readers sen- 
tence us to the ignominy due to a slanderer. 

thurlow weed's testimony. 

TiiuRLOW Weed, late editor of the Albany 
Journal, is good Republican authority. He 
denounces Horace Greeley', the principal 
leader of the Republican party, with whom the 
President condescends and delights to corres- 
pond with, as the "architect of ruin," and 
proceeds, "first, while Slidell, Toombs, Ma- 
son, Davis, etc. etc., were maturing their 
schemes for rebellion, and the Gulf States, 
under their instructions, were seceding, Mr. 
Greeley approved, justified, and invited them 
to go forward ivith their treasonable designs,^^ 
and — 

HERE is the evidence. 

"If the cotton states shall become satisfied 
that they can do better out of the Union than 
in it, tve insist on letting them go in peace. The 
right to secede may be a revolutionary one, but 
it (xists nevertheless. * * * We must 
ever resist the right of any state to remain in 
the Union and nullify or defy the laws thereof. 
To ivithdraw from the Uni»n is quite another 
matter. Whenever a considerable section of 
our Union shall deliberately resolve to go out 
we shall resist all coercive measures designed 
to keep them in. We hope never to live in a 
Republic whereof one section is pinned to an- 
other by bayonets." — Neoi York Tribune, Nov. 
9, 1860. 

"If the cotton states unitedly and earnestly 
wish to withdraw peacefully from the Union, 
ice think they should and would be alloiccd to do 
so. Any attempt to co7npel them by force to 
remain, ivould be contrary to the principles 
enunciated in the immortal Declaration of 
Independence — contrary to the fundamental 
ideas on which human liberty is based." — A'^civ 
York Tribune, Nov. 26, 1860. 

How easy it is for heretics to summon the 
Bible to their aid, or political disunion lunatics, 
to summon the "immortal Declaration" or the 
"fundamental ideas of humanity" as evidence 
that Dissolution is accerding to the true Union 
faith! Again: 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



87 



"If it (the Declaration of Independence) 
justified the secession from the British Empire, 
of three millions of Colonists in 1776, wc do 
not see ichy it should not JUSTIFY the seces- 
sion of five millions of Southerners, from the 
Union.' in 1861"— iV^c York Tribune, Dec. 
17, I860. 

'^Whe/iever it shall he clear that the great 
body of the Southern peoj'le have become con- 
clusiveh) alienated from the Union and ajixious 
to escape from it. WE WILL DO OUR BEST 
TO FORWARD THEIR VIEWS!"— iV'm- 
York Tribune, Feb. 23, 1861. 

Here, then, during the insipient stages of 
the Rebellion, -wc find the great leading organ 
of the Republican party, pleading for the right 
of secession, and pledging itself not only to 
resist any coercive measures but to forward 
the views of the traitors. No Republican press 
— no Republican orator — has from that day to 
this, denounced Gkeelet, the author of these 
disunion sentiments, and why? Because 
Greeley always votes against the Democracy 
and supports the Republican ticket!! 

GREELEY ADVOC.MIXG PEACE WITH THE RE- 
BELS. 

To show still further the treasonable animus 
of the Tribune, we quote from its reply to Mr. 
Weed: 

"We believe that should they (the rebels) be 
successful and ive defeated, in the general re- 
sults of the campaign now openiny, impartial 
third parties will say, that we ought to consent 
to peace, an the best attai7iable terms! Whether 
■ we shall take that counsel, or renew the strug- 
gle [which actually did go against us at Fred- 
ericksburg and several cither places] as a uni- 
ted people, who have come to understand, and 
to accept its real character, the cost and suffer- 
ing involved, even will detei-mine. 

"But we believe the time ivill come — we do 
not say how soon, as that must depend on the 
results of the conflicts yet future, when the 
great powers of Europe will mediate — not by 
blows nor menaces, but by representations — 
against a coniijiuajice of the struggle, as fruit- 
less, ivasteful butchery, and urge a settlement in 
the interest of huma7iity &nd coinmerce.^' 

These are precisely the grounds on which 
the Federals of 1814 urged a "settlement." 
To this last extract, Mr. Weed replies: 

"In simple, direct, unequivocal language, 
Mr. Greeley says that if we are not successful 
in the campaign noiv opening, [the campaign 
of Fredericksburg] our cause and country are 
lost, and that we must have peace upon the 
'best attainable terms.' 

"This is saying openly and publicly, to the 
enemy, that they have only to hold out two or 
three months longer, to secure the triumph of 



rebellion and slavery. Had an opposition 
journal or memher of Congress uttered these 
sentiments, the Tribune would have demanded 
their removal to Fort Lafayette. 

"Mr. Greeley evades, though he does not de- 
ny, that he has communicated with the French 
Minister and Mr. Vallandigham, suggesting 
mediation to the former nnH peace to th.G latter. 
In entering upon the question of mediation 
with a foreign Minister, he takes issue in vio- 
lation of law against the G0VERN3IENT! 
And in opening a correspondence with a rep- 
resentative, whom he is constantly denouncing 
as a traitor, he commits an oflFense, I leave 
others to name and characterize ! 

"And now I leave Mr. Greeley The col- 
umns of his own Tribune being the exponent 
and witness, as first inviting the withdrawal 
from the Union, and then, after a hundred 
thousand lives had been sacrificed, and twelve 
hundred millions of treasure squandered, de- 
manding the intervention of the Great Powers 
of Europe, in favor of, '■'■peace upon the best 
attainable terms! 'for the sake of humanity 
and commerce!^ ". 

MR. LINCOLN ON THE RIGHT OF SECESSION. 

Mr. Greeley was not the first to advocate 
the right of secession and dicsolution, nor was 
Mr. Lincoln, but Mr. Lincoln did advocate it 
as early as the 12th of January, 1 843, on a 
question of reference of a portion of the Pres- 
ident's message — See Ap. Cun. Globe, lit Ses- 
sion, 3Qlh Cone/ress, p.9i. 

"Any people, any where, being inclined and 
having the power, have the right to rise up 
and shake off the existing government and form 
a new one that suits them better. *■«■** 
Nor is this right confined to cases in which the 
people of an existing government may choose 
to exercise it. 

Any portion of such people that can, may 
revolutionize, and may make their own of so 
much territory as they inhabit. More than 
this, a majority of any portion of such people 
may revolutionize, putting down a minority, 
intermingled with or near about them, who 
may oppose their movements." 

the radicals in congress show their 

PURPOSE to destroy THE UNION. 

Mr. Vallandigham, who has been denoun- 
ced as the "prince of copperheads," introduced 
a series of resolutions in Congress, testifying 
jo the integrity of the Union, on the 5th of 
January, 1862, from which we select the fol- 
lowing: 

'■'■Resolved, That the Union as it was must be 
restored, and maintained, one and indivisible, 
forever, under the constitution as it is, the 5th 
Article, providing for amendments, included. 

'■'■Resolved, That this Government can never 
permit the intervention of any foreign nation 
in regard to the present civil war. 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



'■'■Resolved, That no two Governments can 
ever he perrnitted to exercise jurisdiction ivithin 
the territory now belonrjing to the United 
States, and •which ackowledgcd their jurisdic- 
tion at the beginning of this civil war. 

'■'■Resolved, That whoever shall propose, by 
Federal authority to extinguish any of the 
States of this Union, or to declai'e any of them 
Fxtinguished, and to establish tervitorial gov- 
ernments within the same, will be guilty of a 
high crime against the constitution and the 
Union. 

'■'Resolved, That whoever shall affirm that 
it is competent for this House, or any other 
authority, to establish a Dictatorshij} in the 
United States, thereby superceding, or sus- 
pending the constitutional authorities of the 
Union, and shall proceed to make any tnove 
towards the declaring of a Dictator, will be 
guilty of a high crime against the constitution 
.and the Union., and Public Liberty.''^ 

Mr. LovEJOY (radical) immediately moved 
to table the resolutions, which would be equiv- 
let to their final rejection. 

The yeas and nays were demanded by Mr. 
Vallaxdigiiam, and resulted: 



Aldricb, 


S. C. Fessepden, 


Porter, 


Arnold, 


T. A. D. Fesseuden, Potter, 


Asliley, 


Fisher, 


J. H. Kice, 


Babbitt, 


Franchott, 


E.n. Rollins, 


Baker. 


Frank, 


gargeant, 


Baxter, 


Goodwin, 


Sedgwick, 


Beaman, 


Gurlev, 


Shank, 


Bingham, 


Hale," 


Shellaburger, 


Samuel S. Blair, 


Harrison, 


Sherman, 


Blake, 


Hickman, 


Sloan, 


Buffington, 


Hooper, 


Spaulding, 


Chamberlain, 


Horton, 


Stevens, 


Clark, 


Hutchins, 


Stratton, 


Colfax, 


Julian, 


B.;F. Ihoma.s 


F. A. Conkling, 


Kelley, 


Train, 


Roscoe Conkling, 


W. F. Kellogg, 


Trowbridge, 


CoYode, 


Loomis, 


Van Horn, 


Cutler, 


Lovcjoy, 


Van Valkenburg 


Davis, 


Low, 


Van Wyck, 


Dawes, 


McPhersoii, 


Walker, 


Delano, 


Mitchell, 


Wall, 


Duell, 


INIoorehead, 


Wallace, 


Edgerton, 


Justin S. Morril, 


Washburne, 


Elliott, 


Nixon, 


Wilson, 


Ely, 


I'iko, 


Windham, 


Fenton, 


I'omeroy, 


■Worcester. 


78 Republicans 


NATS. 




W. J. Allen, 


Hall, 


Price, 


Anacona, 


Hardy, 


Richardson, 


Bailey, 


Holman, 


Robinson, 


Biddle, 


Johnson, 


Sheffield, 


W. G. Brown, 


Knapp, 


Shiel, 


Clements, 


Law, 


Smith, 


Cobb, 


LaZear, 


JohnB. Steele, 


Conway, 


Leary, 


Wm. G. Steele 


Corning, 


Mallory, 


Stiles, 


Cox, 


Maynard, 


Vallandigham, 


Cravens, 


Menzies, 


Vibbard, 


Crisfield, 


Noble, 


Voorhees, 


Dunlap, 


Norton, 


C. A. White, 


English, 


Nugen, 


WickUffe, 


Fourke, 


Pendleton, 


Woodruff, 


Granger, 


Perry, 


Wright, 


Grider, 




Yateman — 50 . 



If this does not exhibit the true intent and 
purpose of the radicals in power to change our 
Union, establish a despotism or some new 



kind of government in its stead, then there is 
no meaning to be attached to the actions of 
men. 

TUE CONSTITUTION AGAIN THE "•CAUSE OF 
ALL OUR TROUBLES." 

During the summer of 1863, the Anti-Slave- 
ry Society of New York, passed the following 
resolution, Wendell Phillips being present 
and aiding in the same: 

^^ Resolved, That while the Society has ren- 
dered this verdict with the deepest emphasis, 
it has not failed to remind the people of the 
North, that ever since the adoption of the con- 
stitution of the United States, 'their feet have 
run to evil, and they have made haste to shed 
innocent blood,' in the way of slaveholding 
complicity; that by consenting to a slave rep- 
resentation in Congress, to the arrest and ren- 
dition of fugitive slaves on their own soil, and 
to the suppression of slave insurrections by 
the iron heel of the General Government, they 
have made a covenant with death, and with 
hell they have been at agreement, till at last, 
judgment is laid to the line and righteousness 
to the plummet, and the ball sweeps away the 
refuge of lies, the waters overflow the hiding 
place, the covenant with death (the constitu- 
tion) is annulled, and the agreement with hell 
no longer stands." 

THE PURPOSE OF VOTING DOWN THE PLEDGE 
NOT TO ESTABLISH A DESPOTISM. 

The following brief views of the act author- 
izing the President to suspend the writ of free- 
dom, and to indemnify the President and all 
acting under him for any act they may commit, 
is from that able paper, the New York World 
It should be read in the same connection with 
the sedition law of old, which was virtue, com- 
pared with this law. It gives a clue to the 
real motives that governed the majority in 
Congress in voting down Mr. Vallandigiiam's 
resolutions against a Dictatorship, noted above: 

From the New York World. 

THE COMPLETE OVERTHROW OF THE PUBLIC 

LIBERTIES. 

"This is the darkest hour since the outbreak 
of the rebellion. Congress, by the act passed 
yesterday authorizing the President to suspend 
the writ of habeas corpus throughout the whole 
extent of the country, has consummated its 
scries of measures for laying the country pros- 
trate and helpless at the feet of one man. It, was 
not enough that Mr. Lincoln has been intrusted 
with the purse and the sword; that, with an 
immense power to raise or manufacture money 
he has unrestricted command of the services of 
every able-bodied man of the country, Congress 
has thought it necessary to aive the finishing 
stroke to its establishment of a military des- 
potism, by removing all checks on the abuse of 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



89 



the enormous monetary and military power 
with which they have clothed the President. — 
What assurance has the country that we shall 
ever have another Presidential election? None 
whatever, except what may be found in the 
confidence, reasonable or unreasonable, reposed 
in the rectitude and patriotism of Mr. Lincoln. 
If any person, in any part of the country, shall 
think it his duty to resist unconstitutional en- 
croachments on the rights of citizens, Mr. Lin 
coin is authorized, by what purports to be a law, 
to snatch up that individual and immure him 
in one of the government bastiles as long as he 
shall see fit, and there is no power in the na- 
tion to call him to account. He can send one 
of his countless provost marshals into the house 
of a governor of a State, or any other citizen, 
in the dead of night, drag him from his bed, 
hustle him away under the cover of darkness, 
plunge him in a distant and unknown dungeon 
and allow his friends to know no more of the 
■whereabouts of his body, than they would of 
the habitation of his soul, if, instead of impris- 
oning the provost marshal had murdered him. 
With this tremendous power over the liberty 
of every citizen whom he may suspect, or whom 
he may choose to imprison without suspecting, 
the President is as absolute a despot as the 
Sultan of Turkey. All the guarantees of lib- 
erty are broken down; we all lie at the feet of 
one man, dependent on his caprice for every 
hour's exemption from a bastile. If he wills 
it, the State governments may continue in the 
discharge of their functions: but if he will it, 
every one of them that does not become his sub- 
missive and subservient tool can be at once 
suspended by the imprisonment of its officers. 
Considering the enormous power conferred on 
the Presinent by the finance and sonscription 
bills, a reasonable jealousy would have erected 
additional safeguards against its abuse. Instead 
of that, Congress has thrown down all the old 
barriers and left us absolutely without shelter 
in the greatest violence of the tempest. 

"So far as the detestable act passed yester- 
day is an act of indemnity to shield the Presi- 
dent from the legal consequences of past ex- 
ertions of arbitrary power, it is a confession 
that he, his secretaries, provost marshals, and 
other minions, have been acting in violation 
of law. It annuls all laws passed by the state 
legislatures for the protection of their citizens 
against kidnapping; it provides for taking all 
-uits for damages out of the state courts and 
transferring them to the Federal tribunals, 
and before those tribunals the fact that the in- 
jury complained of was done under color of 
executive authority is declared to be a full and 
complete defense. It even inflicts penalties on 
persons coming before the courts for redress of 
injuries, by declaring that if they are not suc- 
cessful, the defendant shall recover double 
costs.. So that the aggrived party must take 
the risk of this penalty for venturing to ascer- 
tain, in a court of justice, whether his oppres- 
sor was or was not acting under the authority 
of the President. To this alarming pass have 
matters come, that not only does every citizen 
7 



hold his liberty at the mercy of one man, but 
he is liable to be punished for inquiring wheth- 
er the man arresting him really possessed, or 
only falsely pretended to possess, that man's 
authority! 

"The attempt to disguise the odious charater 
f this detestable act by a sham provision to 
its second section is an insult to the intelli- 
gence of the people. "The Secretary of State 
and the Secretary of War," so it reads, "are 
directed, as soon as it may he jiracticable,^'' to 
furnish to the judges of the courts lists of the 
names of the persons arrested, that they may 
be presented to a grand jury for indictment. — 
And who is to judge of this practicability'? 
Why the secretaries themselves, or the Presi- 
dent for them. They will furnish such lists 
whenever it suits their pleasure, and not be- 
fore. There is not only 7io penalty for neglect- 
ing to do this altogether, but the main purpose 
of the act is to protect these oflficers, and all 
persons acting under their directions, against 
all legal penalties for all arrests wherever 
made, and all detentions in prison however 
long protracted. 

"The ninety days during which Congress has 
now been in session are the last ninety days of 
American freedom. Our liberties had previ- 
ously been curtailed and abridged by execu- 
tive encroachments, but the courts remained 
open for redress of wrongs. But this Congress 
has rendered their overthrow complete, by first 
putting the purse and sword in the hands of 
the President and then assuring him of com- 
plete impunity in all abuses of this enormous, 
this dangerous, this tremendous power." 

A HIOHER STANDARD THAN THE STARS AND 
STRIPES. 

Soon after Fremont's removal from the Ar- 
my of the West, his admirers held a meeting in 
Cincinnati, the Rev. Mr. Conway was the prin- 
cipal speaker, in the course of whose remarks 
we find the following: 

"'Now that the standard of liberty has been 
unfurled by Fremont over the contending par- 
ties — a higher standard than the stars and stripes 
or stars er bars — how wretched and despicable 
appear the standards raised by the pigmy gen- 
erals who have gone out warm from the wings 
of the Administration.^^ 

REPUBLICANS "PREFER THEIR PRINCIPLES 
TO FIFTY UNIONS." 

Soon after Mr. Seward made his great 
speech, declaring that if need be all platforms 
must be sacrificed to save the Union, the New 
York Tribune became indignant, and thus rap- 
ped the Senator over the knuckles: 

"Senator Seward, in his speech of Thurs- 
day last, declares his readiness to renounce 
Republican principles for the sake of the 
Union. In this readiness the Senator differs 
totally from the almost incomparable majority 



00 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



of the Republican party, and from the Presi- 
dent elect. They regard these principles as 
sacred. They will not forswear them at the 
bidding of a world of seceding and treasonable 
slaveholders. They see no necessity to choose 
between them, but if such a choice must be 
made, they prefer their principles to fifty 
Vnions.^^ 

ABOLITIONISTS BISCOUEAGE ENLISTMENTS. 

So long as the Boston Liberator supposed 
the Wi;r was being prosecuted to save the 
Union, it was bitter against all who enlisted. 
Here is an extract from its columns of 1862: 

"Hasten back to a recognition of your own 
manhood — of your divine origin and destiny. 
Believe yourselves too sacred to be shot down 
like dogs by Jeff. Davis and his negro mymi- 
dons, and all in the cause of slavery! Die, 
rather, at home in the arms of loving mothers 
and affectionate sisters. Nay, be shot down, if 
you must, at home, and die like a Christian, 
and have a decent burial, rather than go and 
die in the cause of a Union and a government 
based on slavery, which should never have 
been formed, and which are blistered all over 
with the curses of God for wrongs, outrages 
and cruelties it has inflicted on millions of 
His poor children. Speak in tones of thunder 
to the Government until it hears, and declares 
a policy and purpose of such a character as 
that if you must die in battle it shall at least be 
in the cause of jusiiuu and liberty." 

VOTES ON ABOLITION IN CONGRESS. 

Not having room in this work for even ex- 
tracts, we refer the reader for the votes on the 
various negro policies of the party in power to 
the Congressional Globe of 1861, pp. 5 and 
159. Also to same of 1862, pp. 1179, 1653, 
1548, 2359, 2363, 1408, 2793, 3107, 3267, 2536, 
3397, &c.. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

ABOLITION DISLOYALTY AND TREASON. 

Extracts from Speeches and Sayings : by John A. Bing- 
ham. ..A. G. Riddle. ..Owen Lovfjoy...Wm. Davi8...F. A. 
Pike...'\V. P. Cutler. ..J. M. Ashlay...J. P. C. Shanks 
...John Uuchings...F. A. Conway. ..C. F. Sedgwick... 
Benj. Wade.... I. il. Kice...G. W. Julian...Thad. Stevens 
...J. P. Hale ' ►■■ titions for Dissolution). ..David Wilmot 
...Horace Wu.ii.... Wendell Phillips... Lowell Republi- 
cans..." Boslnu Liberator "...J. Watson Webb. ..Boston 
Free Soilors... Charles Sumner..." Tiue American '... 
' Haaipshire Gazette "...Programme of Revolution... 
Senator Wilson. ..R. P. Spauldine...Erastus Hopkins... 
H. M. Addison. ..Abolitionists of Massachusetts. ..R. W. 
Emerson... Horace Greeley. ..U. Ward Beecher...S. P. 
Chase. . .Fred Douglas. ..Redpatb... Rev. Chas. E. Hodges 
...Lloyd Garrison..." N. Y. Tribune "...Wm. 0. Duvall 
...Gen. Banks. ..Anson Burlingame...Rev. Dr. Bellows... 
Ingersoll, of 111. ...Defeat of the Crittenden Compromise 
...Vote in the Senate. ..Policy of Wou't-Yield-an-lnch... 
Treasonable Correspondence between M. D. Conway 



and J. M. Mason. ..F. A. Conway's Treasonable Speech 
in Congress... Also, his Treasonable Letter to the "N. 
Y. Tribune". ..Garrison's Speech in Philadelphia. ..Ex- 
tr.ict from "Wisconsin Puritan." 

SLAVERY THE ''cause" OF AGITATION. 

The following extracts, taken promiscuously 
from a large class, exhibit the true aim^ and 
purposes of the radicals to agitate the slavery 
question as the shortest route to a dissolution 
of the Union. Nothing can be plainer than 
this. It is the same old stereotyped lingo, 
used by Peliiam in 1796, when he boasted of 
his object to dissolve the Union. Most of these 
characters are the direct descendents of those 
who voted down Virginia and Delaware, then 
and now slave states, and succeeded in keep- 
ing open that execrable commerce, the slave 
trade, eight years longer than most of the South 
wanted it, that they might enrich their com- 
merce, and sell its fruits to the very men and 
communities they now denounce. The picture 
is as true as it is sad. 

"We believe that in the initiation of eman- 
cipation, of full and complete emancipation, 
will put an end to this civil war. After slave- 
ry is abolished, or put in process of ultimate 
extinction, there will be nothing left for trait- 
ors to fight for." — Hon John A. Bingham, of 
Ohio, March 18, 1862. 

''The forces now moving the profound depths 
of our political compact, will themselves, ere 
they are spent, work its [slavery's] demoli- 
tion." — lion. A. G. Riddle, of Ohio, January 
27, lb62. 

"This war, without compromise or cessation 
will go forward till its beneficent end [the end 
of slavery] is accomplished through its own 
appointed means." — lion. A. G Riddle, April 
11, 1862. 

"There can be no Union till slavery is des- 
troyed. * * I say you cannon put down the 
rebellion and restore the Union without des- 
troying slaverj'." — Hon. Oiven Lovejoy, of 
Illinois^ April M, 1862. 

"Slavery is at war with us, and slavery 
must die. '^ — Hon. Wm. Davis, of Penn., March 
6, 1862. 

"And these three — tax, fight, and emanci- 
pate — shall be the trinity of our salvation. In 
this sign we shall conquer." — Hon. F. A. Pike, 
of Maine, Feb. 5, 1862. 

"Slavery is a public enemy, and ought, 
therefore, to be destroyed; it is a nuisance, 
that must be abated. * * I reiterate the 
words used by the honorable gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Stevens) in the preamble 
to his bill now under consideration: 'slavery 
has caused this present rebellion, and there 
can be no permanent peace and union in this 
republic so long as that institution exists.' 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



91 



Everybody knows this to be true. * * . * 
Shall we occnpy the ridiculous position of hav- 
ing well nigh exhausted the blood and treasure 
of a nation to suppress a rebellion, and leave 
the admitted cause of it untouched?'' — Hon 
W.P. Cutler, of Ohio, April 23, 1862. 

"In my judgment, an enduring peace can 
be secured only bj conauering the rebels, con- 
fiscating their property, and emancipating their 
slaves." — 7/crt. J. J/. Ashley, of Ohio, May 23, 
1862. 

"This is the time, of all others, to release 
the slaves of rebels. Such law could only be 
enforced by the army. Hence, the army would 
be on the spot to quell any possible outbreak. 
— Hon. J. r. C. Shanks, of Indiana, May 24, 
1862. 

■'All slaveholders, and those who sympa- 
thize with the institution of slavery more or 
less sympathize with this rebellion. I say that 
this is the cause of the whole difficulty now, 
and I think that this nation is false to its own 
interests, false to humanity, false to the claims 
of justice, if it does not destroy the institution 
on the occasion now presented. — Hon. John 
Hutchinys, of Ohio, May 2^, 1862.. 

"This is the immense sacrifice we are 
making for freemen and Union; and yet it is 
all to be squandered on a subterfuge and 
cheat! For one, I shall not vote another dol- 
lar or a man for the war until it assumes a 
difi'erent standing, and tends directly to an 
anti-slavery result. — Hon. F. A. Comcay, of 
Kansas, Dec. 12, 1862. 

"We will break it (slavery) down, destroy 
it, and overthrow the institution, if the laws of 
war, under the Constitution of the country, 
give us the authority, as I most solemnly be- 
lieve they do. I will have no disguise of my 
opinions or intentions. My stand upon the 
subject is open to all observation. 1 am for 
destroying this hostile iiistitution in every 
state that has made v:ar upon the Govern' 
ment; and if we have milita^'y strength enough 
to reduce them to possession, I propose to leave 
not one slave in the wake of our advancing 
armies — not one '' — Hon. C. F. Sedgwick, of 
New York, May 23, 1862. 

"I would reduce the aristocratic slaveholders 
to utter poverty. I know they are conceited; 
I know they are essentially aristocratic. I am 
fully persuaded that their minds and their feel- 
ings are so in antagonism to Republican Dem- 
ocratic doctrines that it is impossible to recon- 
cile them, and we shall never have peace until 
we have reduced the leaders to utter poverty, 
and taken thereby their influence away. I am 
for doing it. It ought to be done." — Senator 
Wade, of Ohio, June 25, 1862. 

"I hope and believe that before this war is 
ended the sun will not shine upon a slave upon 
all this continent. I hope that the end of 
slavery and this war will be written together 
upon the same page of the history of the coun- 
try."— i^on. 0. F. Sedgwick, June 25, 1862. 



"By the laws of peace it [slavery] was en- 
titled to protection, and had it. By the laws 
of war, it is entitled to annihilation. In God's 
name, let it still have its rights." — Hon. John 
H. Bice, of Maine, Meiy 25, 1862. 

"The rebels have demanded a 're-construct- 
ion' on the basis of slavery, let us give them a 
'reconstruction' on the basis of freedom. Let 
us convert the rebel States into conquered 
provinces, remanding them to the status of 
mere territoriei, and governing them as such 
in our discretion." — Hon. G. W. Julian, of 
Indiana, January 13, 1862. 

"Sir, I can no longer agree that this Admin- 
istration is pursuing a wise policy." * * * 
"I cannot agree to the policy which is forbid- 
ding the employment and liberation of these 
men. Its policy ought to be to order our army, 
wherever they go, to free the slaves, to enlist 
them, to arm them, to discipline them as they 
have been enlisted, armed and disciplined ev- 
erywhere else, and as they can be here, and 
set them shooting their masters, if they will 
not submit to this Government. Call that sav- 
age, if you please." — Hon. Thad. Stevens, of 
Fa., July 5, 1S62. 

"On the 7th day of February, 1850. John 
P. Hale insisted upon, and along with Chase 
and Seward alone, voted to receive, refer and 
consider a petition demanding of Congress 'an 
immediate dissolution of the Union,' because 
a union with slave-holders is violative of di- 
vine law and human rights." 

"John P. Hale, on the 23d of March, 1848, 
presented a batch of eight petitions at once, 
demanding the dissolution of the Union." 

The Montrose Democrat of May 10th, 1856, 
says : 

'■We recollect a little over a year ago, that 
we heard Mr. Wilmot make the following de- 
claration : 

" 'I am determined to arouse the people to 
the importance of the slavery issue, and get 
up an organization through which they can get 
control of the Government in 1856. And if I 
become satisfied that these efforts will fail, 
and that the people will not assert their rights, 
then I'll be d — d if I don't join the party that 
I think will send the country to h — 1 the 
quickest! ' " 

"In conclusion I have only to add that such 
is my solemn and abiding conviction of the 
character of slavery, and under a full sense of 
my responsibility to my country and my God, 
I deliberately say, better disunion — better a 
civil or servile war — better anything that God 
in his providence shall send— than an extension 
of the bonds of slavery.' — Hon, Horace 
Mann. 

'•No man has a right to be surprised at this 
state of things. It is just what we abolitionists 
and disuniunists have attempted to bring about. 
There is merit in the Republican party. It is 
the first sectional parly ever organized in this 



92 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



country. It does not know its own face, but 
calls itself national; but it is not national — it 
is sectional. The Republican party is a party 
of the North pledged against the South." — 
We7ulell Phillips. 

"Ecsohed, That the Union was established 
to secure the liberties of American citizens. — 
When it fails to do that, our only voice can be, 
let the Union be dissolved." — Lowell Republi- 
can Resolution. 

The Boston Liberator, in an article headed, 
in large type — "But one issue — the dissolution 
of the Union'' — recommends signatures to a 
petition for that purjiose, of which the follow- 
ing is a spirit: 

"We theiefore believe that the time has 
come for a new arrangement of elements so 
hostile; of interests so irreconcilable; of in- 
stitutions so incongruous; and we earnestly re- 
quest Congress, at its present session, to take 
initiatory measures for the speedy, peaceful 
and equitable dissolution of the existing Union, 
as the exigencies of the case require." 

"If the Republicans fail at the ballot-box, 
we shall be forced to drive back the slaveocrats 
with fire and sword!" — James Watson Webb. 

'^Resolved, That 'Constitution, or no Consti- 
tution, law or no law, we will not allow a fugi- 
tive slave to be taken from Massachusetts.' " 
— Boston Free Soilers of 1850. 

"I have before declared that the path of 
duty was clear as to the fugitive slave act, and 
that I am bound to disobey it!" — Chas. Sumner, 
October, 1850. 

The Trae American, a Republican organ in 
Erie county. Pa., in commenting upon a speech 
delivered at a Democratic meeting says: 

"This twaddle about the Union and its pre- 
servation is too silly and sickening for any 
good eifect. We think the liberty of a single 
slave is worth more than all the Unions God's 
universe can hold." 

The Hampshire (Mass.) Gazette of August 
23d, 1856, a Republican organ, published a 
letter from a citizen of Northampton, who has 
been engaged in circulating there the petition 
for a dissolution of the Union, wherein he 
stated ihat 

"More than one hundred and fifty legal vot- 
ers of that town have signed this petition." 

Says Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts: 

"Freemen of the North have a right to gov- 
ern this country. I tell you here, to-night, 
that the agitation of this question of human 
slavery will continue while the foot of a slave 
presses the soil of the American Republic." 

Says Charles Sumner: 

"The good citizen, as he reads the require- 



ments of this act, — the fugitive slave law — is 
filled with horror. * * * Here the path of 
duty is clear. I am proud to disobey this act. 
Sir, I will not dishonor the home of the pil- 
grims, and of the revolution, by admitting — 
nay, I cannot believe this will be executed 
here." 

Said RuFus P. SPArLDixG, a member of the 
Convention that nominated Fremont: 

"In the case of the alternative being pre- 
sented of the continuance of slavery, or a dis- 
solution of the Union, I am for dissolusion, and 
I care not how quick it comes." 

Said Erastus Hopkins, a member of the 
Convention that nominated Fremont: 

"If peaceful measures fail us, and we are 
driven to the last extremity, where ballots are 
useless, then we'll make bullets effective." — 
[Tremendous applause.] 

II. M. Addison, otth.Q American Advertiser, 

says: 

"I detest slavery, and say unhesitatingly, 
that I arm in favor of abolition by some means, 
if it should send all the party organizations in 
the Union, and the Union itself, to the devil. 
It can only exist by holding millions of human 
beings in the most abject and cruel system of 
slavery that ever cursed the earth; it was a 
pity it was ever formed, and the sooner it is 
dissolved the better." 

In 1854, the abolitionists of Massachusetts 
and other states sent petitions to Congress, 
from which the following is an extract: 

"We earnestly request Congress, at its pres- 
ent session to take such initiatory measures for 
the speedy, peaceful and equitable dissolution 
of the existing Union as the exigencies of the 
case may require." 

Said Ralph Waldo Emmerson: 

"We can no longer live in a Union with a 
barbarous community." 

Says Senator Wade, of Ohio: 

"I say there is another thing — and I put it 
as a question of casuistry — if the condition on 
which the Union is to be permanent can con- 
sist alone in trampling down nearly four mil- 
lions of your inhabitants, (i. e. the existence 
of slavery,) I ask honest and honorable men, 
dare you wish that the Union should be con- 
tinued upon even these nefjirious conditions? 
No, sir; nor I, for it would be the most mise- 
rable selfishness that ought to damn any man 
wishing to benefit himself from such a sacrifice 
of all the rights belonging to human nature as 
this. (Applause.) 

"And after all this to talk of a Union ! Sir, 
I have said you have no Union. I say you 
have no Union to-day worthy of the name. 

"Sir, I am here a conservative man, know- 
ing as I do that the only salvation to your 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK. 



93 



Union is that you divest it entirely from all 
the taints of slavery. 

"If we can't have that, then I go for no 
Union at all. but I go for FIGHT. (Great 
applause.) If there is any man here possess- 
ing a weaker spirit, let him show himself, for 
I want to see his meek face." 

Says HoR.\cE Greeley: 

'•'•All nations have their superstitions, and 
that of our people is the Constitution." 

Henry Ward Beecher says: 

"A great many people raise a cry about the 
Union and the Constitution, as if the two were 
perfectly identical; but the truth is, it is the 
Constitution itself that is the cause of every 
division with this vexed question of slavery 
has ever occasioned in this country. It has 
been the foundation of our troubles, by at- 
tempting to ii.old together, as reconciled, ttvo 
opposing principles which will 7iot harwonize 
nor agree.'' 

James Watson Webb remarked in a speech 
in the convention that nominated Fremont: 

"On the action of the convention depends 
the fate of the country; if the Republicans 
fail at the ballot box, weivill be forced to drive 
back slavocracg ivilh FIRE AND SWORD. 

Says Sal. P. Chase: 

"Slavery in the States would not continue 
a year after the accession of the anti-slavery 
party to power, ;'ind it ought to be abolished 
by the constitutional jaozt'cr of Congress.^^ 

Says Fred. Doudlas: 

"From this time forth I consecrate the la- 
bors of my life to the dissolution of the Union; 
and I care not whether the bolt that rends it 
shall come from Heaven or from Hell!" 

Redpath, the English abolitionist, who has 
done the engineering for the Republicans in 
the Kansas matter, has published a book, in 
\rhich his purpose is frankly avowed. He 
says: 

"I believe that civil war between the North 
and South would ultimate in insurrection, and 
that the Kansas troubles would probably cre- 
ate a military conflict of the two sections. 
Hence I left the South and went to Kansas, and 
endeavored, personally and with my pen, to 
precipitate a revolution." 

Now, the aforenamed traitors are not de- 
nounced as ••copperheads," because they vote 
the Republican ticket. 

In 1855 Senator Wade, of Ohio, made a 
speech in Portland, Maine, in which he de- 
clared: 

"There is really no Union now between the 
North and the South. I believe no two nations 
■on earth entertain feelings of more bitter ran- 



cor towards each other than these two portions 
of the Republic." 

In a tract, by the Rev. Chas. E.Hodges., 
and published by the Anti-Slavery Tract So- 
ciety, occurs this passage: 

"That Constitution is pro-slavery. Viewed, 
then, in the light of all that is urged, (andean 
logic or inspiration point to any other con 
elusion?) he is not a traitor to his country, but 
the only true patriot, as well as christian, who 
labors for the peaceful dissolution of the 
Union." * * * 

"We do not expect to dissolve the Union 
alone. With the truest and most disinterested 
love of justice, humanity, and our country, we 
simply ask co-operation, and, for this, appeal 
to the conscience and understanding of the 
people. There is no necessity, therefore, for 
any definite answer to the question: How do 
you propose to do this thing? It is not the 
time to lay out a plan of a campaign, to open 
trenches, dispose forces, and besiege the cita- 
del, while we have yet no forces, save only a 
few recruiting officers. The thing to be done 
now is, to urge upon every man this question: 
Are you ready? 

Now, has this Rev. ever been denounced by 
any Republican press or orator? Never! — 
Why? Because the Rev. Chakles E. Hodges 
votes the Republican ticket! 

Mr. Garrison made a speech in 1S56, in 
which he declared: 

"I have said, and I say again, that in pro- 
portion to the growth of disunionism, will be 
the growth of Republicanism. * * ^ The 
Union is a lie. The American Union is an im- 
pesture, and a covenant with death, and an 
agreement with hell. * * * I am for its 
overthrow. * * * Up with the flag of dis- 
union, that we may have a free and glorious 
Union of our own." 

No Republican was ever known to denounce 
Garrison for this blasphemy, because he never 
votfd the Democratic ticket! 

Wo quote as follows from the New York 
Tribune, which was laid upon the members' 
desks just before the passage of the Kansas- 
Nebraska act: 

"We urge, therefore, unbending determina- 
tion on the part of Northern members hostile 
to this intolerable outrage, and demand of 
them, in behalf of peace, in behalf of freedom, 
in behalf of justice and humanity, resistance 
to the last. Better that confusion should en- 
su e — better that discord should reign in the 
national councils — better that Congress should 
break up in wild disorder — nay, better that the 
Capitol itself should blaze by the torch of the 
incendiary, or fall and bury all its inmates be- 
neath its crumbling ruins, than that this per- 
fidy and wrong should be finally accomplished." 



94 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



The next is an extract from a letter of Wm. 
0. DuvALL, to a convention which he had been 
inTited to address in New York: 

"Were not the nominal free states of this 
Republic completely 'subdued?' Within forty- 
eight houi-s from the time Charles Sumner was 
murderously and cowardly assaulted in the 
Senate, every custom-house, arsenal and forti- 
fication of the North should have been in the 
possession of citizen soldiers, and long before 
this an army of, twenty thousand men should 
have expelled from Washington the Goths and 
Vandals of the administration. And give me 
leave to say to you, the people are ready to do 
this work, and are only kept from it by the 
'cool headed' management of political leaders. 
Only let the capitalists of the North furnish 
the means, and the men are ready to fight this 
propagandizing Government at once u2)on its 
good behavior. Let the capitalists generally 
take pattern from the noble Gcrrit Smith, who 
proposes the raising at once of a million of 
dollars, and pledged himself for ten thousand 
of it. That is the ring of the true metal. — 
Where shall we find one more such? That 
there are more such I know, for my neighbdl', 
Nathan Marble, told me yesterday, that if Mr. 
Smith's plan should be carried out he would 
give a thousand dollars towards it." 

"I sincerely hope that a civil war may soon 
burst upon the country. I want to see Ameri- 
' can Slavery abolished in my day — it is a leg- 
acy I have no wish to leave my children; then 
my most fervant prayer is, that England, 
France and Spain may speedily take this sla- 
very-accursed Nation into their special consid- 
eration; and when the time arrives for the 
streets and cities of this 'land of the free and 
home of the brave' to run with blood to the 
horses' bridles, if the writer of this be living, 
there will be one heart to rejoice at the retri- 
butive justice of heaven." 

Nc\ Republican ever saw any "treason" in 
this, because Mr. Duvall votes the Republi- 
can ticket! 

Gen. Banks said: 

"I am willing in a certain contingency to 
let the Union slide," 

and no Republican has ever declaimed against 
the sentiment, because Banks votes the Repub- 
lican ticket. 

BuRLiNGAME, present minister to the Celes- 
tial Empire, said in a speech in Indiana, that 

"the time will come when we must have an 
anti-slavery constitution — an anti-slavery Bible 
and an anti-slavery God," 

nor have we ever heard a Republican dissent 
from this blasphemy, because Burlingame votes 
the Republican ticket. 

Thad. Stevens, the chairman of the com- 



mittee of Ways and Means in the House, made 
a speech in Congress, in which he declared: 

"If we are to have a Union again, I would 
not have one with one part free — the other part 
slave. I would not, if I could, agree to such a 
Union!" 

Thad. Stevens has not been rebuked by his 
followers, because Tuad. Stevens votes the 
Republican ticket! 

The Rev. Dr. Bellows, in one of his public 
discourses in the city of New York, disgraced 
the pulpit by uttering the following: 

"It is no longer a war in defence of the 
Union, the Constitution, and the enforcement 
of the laws. It is a war to be carried on no 
longer with the aim of re-establishing the 
Union and the Constitution with all their old 
compromises. God means not to let us off with j 
any half-way work. I am now convinced, and 
I consider it the most humane, the most econ- 
omical, and the most statesmanlike now, to 
take tiie most radical ground possible — TO 
ASSUME THAT THIS IS A WAR FOR 
THE SUBJUGATION OR EXTERMINA- 
TION OF ALL PERSONS AVHO WISH TO 
MAINTAIN THE SLAVE POWER:— a war 
to get rid of slavery and slaveholders: 
WHETHER IT BE CONSTITUTIONAL OR 
NOT!!!" 

Dr. Bellows votes the Republican ticket 
and hence he is not denounced for such senti- 
ments by that party! 

Mr. iNGErsoLL, the Abolition candidate for 
Congress at large in Illinois, during a late can- 
vass, in a speech at Chicago, said: 

"I say we must adopt whatever measures are 
necessary to crush this rebellion and save the 
countiy. I am not'the judge of what is neces- 
sary, nor is any man here the judge. The 
President is the appointed judge, and when 
his mandate has gone forth, every mau is 
bound to obey. Abraham Lincoln is Command- 
er-in. Chief of the armies of the states. As 
such he possesses the power necessary to crush 
the rebellion. I care not what you name the 
measure; if it becomes necessary, that is the 
only question, and the man who does not re- 
spect the mandates of his supreme General 
when the country is in a death graple with re- 
bellion, is a traitor and deserves a traitor's 
doom. The President in such a time, I be- 
lieve, is clothed with the power as full as that 
of the Czar of Russia over this question, and 
the question of its exercise is for him and his 
constitutional advisers to determine. The Chi- 
cago Times is not the judge. If it is necessary 
perhaps it is just as well for the people to be- 
come familiar with this power and the right to 
its exercise now as at any other time. If the 
President should determine that in order to 
crush this rebellion the constitution itself 
should be suspended during tho rebellion, I 
believe he has the right to do it '" 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



95 



Ingersoll was not dnounced as a traitor, 
because Ingeesoll votes the Republican 
ticket. 

TEACE AND THE CRITTENDEN PBOPOSITION. 

That the passage by Congress of the Crit- 
tenden proposition would have brought peace 
to the country, and saved us millions of trea- 
sure, a million of precious lives, and rivers of 
blood, we have the best of evidence. Every 
Republican in the United States Senate voted 
against that proposition, and here is the vote: 



i;i_V!ir(l, 
i.i)i!er, 
.right, 
' ritteudeu, 
Douglas, 
liwinn, 
Hunter, 



ATES. 

Johnson, of Tenn.,Polk, 

Kennedy, Pugli, 

Lowe, Rice, 

Latham, Sebastian, 

Mason, Thoniiison, 

Nicholson, WigfiiU— IS. 



Anthony, Durkoe, Morrill, 

Bingham, Fesseuden, Sumner, 

Chandler (blood let-Foote, Ten Eyck, 

ting), Foster, Trumbull, 

Clark, Grimes, Wade, 

Dixon, Harlan, Wilkinson, 

Doolittle, King, Wilson— -0. 

If two, of those who voted in the negative, 
had voted in the affirmative, as Douglas de- 
clared, on the tloor of the Senate, it would have 
saved us the horrors of this war. The reader 
can form his own conclusion, as to whether 
that negative vote was the result of a desire 
to plunge us into a war and thus throw the 
onus of dissolving the Union upon the South. 

THE WOULDN'T-TIELD-AN-INCH POLICY. 

During the pending of the peace negotia- 
tions, the Chicago Tribic?ie said: 

"Others may do as they please, but this 
journal stands where it has always stood. It 
concedes nothing that would weaken the North 
in her great triumph over that infernal, des- 
potic institution which has debauched the Na- 
tional conscience, and now strives to emascul- 
ate the National courage. We surrender no 
inch of ground that has been won. Standing 
solidly on the Constitution and the laws; in- 
tending evil to none, but exact justice, under 
the National compact, to -all; animated by a 
pervading conviction of the sacredness of the 
cause in which we are engaged, we shall be 
content to do that which duty to God, our 
country and ourselves demands, and trust the 
consequences to that Power which shapes all 
things for the best; and this is the position in 
■which the genuine Republicans of Illinois 
should stand, and these are the words which 
they should use. But whether they falter or 
keep on, our course is marked out." 

OPEN TREASON OF THE ABOLITIONISTS. 

The Rev. M. D. Conwat went to England. 



as he himself admits, for the purpose of enter- 
ing into negociations with the Rebel Envoy, J. 
M. Mason, and with a view to stipulate that 
on certain conditions the Abolitionists of 
America would oppose the further prosecution 
of the war. By the laws of war, and by our 
Constitution, this was rank, unmitigated treas- 
on — "adhering to the enemy — giving him aid 
and comfort," &c. And yet no Republican 
press or orator has denounced Mr. Conway as 
a traitor, because Mr. Conway votes the Re- 
publican ticket. Our '•Government" has taken 
no steps towards having him brought to j ustice, 
but has winked at his treason — paying no at- 
tention to it, while it hunted down by the^spy 
system, a citizen of Ohio, and sent him beyond 
our lines, as a felon, at the same time the 
President declaring he had committed no crime. 
A parallel for this conduct cannot be found in 
any civilized Government, and the real patriot 
is left to fall back on the vote against Vallan- 
digham's resolutions, declaring against a Des- 
potism, (see previous page) for a solution of 
the problem. 

Here is the proof of Conway's treason: 

31r. Conway's Letter to Mason. 

"Aubrey House, Notting Hill, I 
London, W., June 16, 1863. j" 

"Sir: — I have authority to make the follow- 
ing proposition on behalf of the leading anti- 
slavery men of America, who have sent me to 
this country: 

"If the states calling themselves 'The Con- 
federate States of America' will consent to 
emancipate the negro slaves in those states, 
such emancipation to be guaranteed by a lib- 
eral European commission, the emancipation 
to be inaugurated at once, and such time to be 
allowed for its completion as the commission 
shall adjudge to be necessary and just, and 
such emancipation once made to be irrevoca- 
ble — then the Abolitionists and anti-slavery 
leaders of the Northern states shall immedi- 
ately oppose the prosecution of the war on the 
part of the United States Government, and 
since they hold the balance of power, will cer- 
tainly cause the war to cease, by the immedi- 
ate withdrawal of every kind of support from 
it. 

"I know that the ultimate decision upon so 
grave a proposition may require some time; 
but meanwhile I beg to be informed at your 
early convenience whether you will personally 
lend your influence in favor of a restoration of 
peace and the independenne of the South upon 
the simple basis of emancipation of slaves. 

"Any guarantee of my own responsibility 
and my right to make this oifer shall be forth- 
coming. 

"MONCURE D. CONWAY. 

'•J. M. Mason, Esq." 



96 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



J/r. Mason's Heply. 

"No. 24 Upper Setmoue Stp.bet, ) 
Portman Square, June 11, 1863./ 

" Sir: — I have your note of yesterday. The 
proposition it contains is certainly worthy of 
the gravest consideration, provided it is made 
under a proper responsibility. Yet you must 
be aware that while you know fully the repre- 
sentative position I occupy, I have not the like 
assurance as regards yourself. If you think 
proper, therefore, to communicate to me who 
those are on whose behalf and authority you 
make the proposition referred to, with evidence 
of your 'right to make this offer,' I will at 
once give you my reply, the character of which, 
however, must depend on what I may learn of 
your authority in the premises. 

J. M. BIASON. 
•'M'NtiBE D. Con-way." 

3Ir. Conway's Answer. 

"AuBKEY House, Notting Hill, W., 1 
'•June 16, 1863. / 

"SiE; — Your note of the llth, has been re- 
ceived. I could easily give you the evidence 
that I represent the views of the leading Abo- 
litionists of America, but with regard to the 
special offer I have made. I have concluded 
that it was best to write out to America and 
obtain the evidence of my right to make it in 
a form which will preclude any doubt as to its 
sufficiency. I shall then address jon again on 
the subject. 

"MONCURE D. CONWAY. 

"J. M. Mason, Esq." 

BIr. Mascn Closes the Correspondence. 

"I>o. 24, Upper Seymour Stbeet, 1 
"Porfmaii Square, June 17, 1863. / 

'•Sir: — I have received your note of yester- 
day. You need not write to America to "ob- 
tain the evidence' of your right to treat on the 
matter it imports. . Our correspondence closes 
with this reply. 

"It was your pleasure to commence it, it is 
mine to terminate it. 

"I desired to know who they were who were 
responsible for your mission to England as you 
present it, and who were to confirm the treaty 
you proposed to make for arresting the war in 
America, on the basis of a separation of the 
States with or without the sanction of their 
government. But such information is of the 
less value now as I find from an advertisement 
in the journals of the day that you have 
brought to England letters of sufBcient credit 
from those who sent you, to invite a public 
meeting in London under the sanction of a 
member of Parliament who was to preside, to 
hear an address from you on the subject of your 
mission, with the promise c!' a like address 
from him. 

"The correspondence shall go to the public 
and will find its way to the country, a class of 
the citizens which you claim to represent. — 
It will perhaps interest the government and 
the soi distant "loyal men,-' there to know un- 
der the sanction of your name, that^the "lead- 



ing anti-slavery men in America" are willing 
to negotiate with the authorities of the Con- 
federate States for a "restoration of peace 
and independence of the South on a pledge 
that the abolitionists and anti-slavery leaders 
of the northei-n states, shall immediately op- 
pose the further prosecution of the war on the 
part of the United States Government, and 
since they hold the balance of power, will cer- 
tainly cause the war to cease by the immedi- 
•ite withdrawal of every kind of support from 
it. 

"As some reward, however, for the interest- 
ing disclosure, your inquiry whether the Con- 
federate States will consent to emancipation on 
the terms stated, shall not go wholly unan- 
swered, you may be assured then, and per- 
haps it may be of value to your constituents to 
assure them that the Northern states will never 
be in a position to put this question to the south, 
nor will the Sothern states ever be in a position 
requiring them to give an answer. 

"J. M. MASON. 

"MoNcuEE D. Conway." 

AJJOTHER CONWAY IN THE ROLE OF TREASON. 

The Kansas namesake of the Abolition En- 
voy Extraordin.ary to Secessiaiv'a England, de- 
serves a niche in our pantheon of the Aboli- 
tion gods. 

F. A. Conway, an Abolition member of the 
last Congress from Kansas, delivered a speech 
just before the close of the session of that il- 
lustrious body, in which he did what no Dem- 
ocrat North of the Potomac ever has done — 
advocated direct, the dissolution of the Union. 
We garnish our pages with enough to show its 
intent and purpose. 

EXTRACT FROM CONWAY's SPEECH. 

"Sir, I am not in favor of restoring the Con- 
stitutional relations of the slaveholders to the ^ 
Union, nor of the war to that end. On the 
contrary, I am utterly, and forever opposed to 
both. I am not,in favor of the Union as it exists 
to-day. I am in favor of recognizing the loyal 
states as the American nation, based as th3y 
are on the principle of freedom for all, with- 
out distinction of trace, color or condition. I 
believe it to be the manifest destiny of the 
American nation to ultimately control the 
American continent on this principle. I con- 
cieve, therefore, that the true object of this 
war is to revolutionize the national Govern- 
ment, by resolving the North into the nation, 
and the South into a distinct public body, 
leaving us in a position to recognize the latter 
as a separate state. I believe the direction of the 
war to any other end is a perversion of it, cal- 
culated to subvert the very object it was design- 
ed to effect. 

"I have never allowed myself to indulge in 
that superstitious idolatry of the Union so pre- 
valent am-^ng simple but honest people, nor 
that political cant about the Union so prevalent 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



97 



among the iiishonest ones. I have simply re- 
garded it as a form of government, to be valued 
in proportion to its merits as an instrument of 
national prosperity and power. _ 

"The war which has come in between the 
North and the South for the past two years has 
made a revolution. This is the fact; and the 
fact in such a matter is the important thing. It 
settles the law. No technicality in a question 
of this kind can stand. The war has utterly 
dissolved the connection between the North 
and the South, and rendered them separate 
and independent powers in the world. This is 
the necessary eifect of civil war anywhere. It 
makes the belligerent powers independent for 
the time being, and, unless the one succumbs 
to the other, they continue independent of each 
other forever The principle is laid down by 
Vattel, as follows: 

'When a nation becomes divided into two parties, abso- 
lutely independent, and no longer acknowledging a com- 
mon superior, the state is dissolved, and the war between 
the two factions stands upon the same ground, in every re- 
spect, as a war between two different nations.' — Bouk 111, 
cluip. 17, X'- -1-^. 

"It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that 
so learned and profound a jurist as the honor- 
able member from Pennsylvania (Mr. Stevens) 
should express the same opinion. 

* ir * * * * * 

''The Democrats will not, of course, listen 
to separation for an instant. Such a sugges- 
tion, in their eyes, is treason — a proposition 
to dissolve the Union — for which anyone ought 
to be hanged. They expect the question wheth- 
er the Union shall be restored by force or by 
compromise, to be submitted to the people in 
the next election; and upon that to carry the 
country. Their plan is to oppose the Admin- 
istration simply in its anti-slavery policy. — 
They put in issue the Confiscation Act, the 
Missouri Emancipation Act, and the Presi- 
dent's Proclamation of Emancipation. These 
measures they pronounce unconstitutional, de- 
ny their validity, and every thing done, or to 
be done, in pursuance of them. In addition to 
this, they attack the Administration on ac- 
count of itS suspension of the writ of habeas 
corpus, false imprisonment, corruption, imbe- 
cility, &c.. ami a thousand other incidents. — 
But on the war and the integrity of the Union 
they are like adamant itself. They claim to 
favor the war, for the sake of the Union, but 
to be for peace rather than war. They say, 
very truthfully, that the Republicans have 
tried force for two years, and exhausted the 
country, and upon this claim the adoption of 
their method as all that is left to be done. — 
This is the manner in which the politicians of 
the country propose to terminate this great 
conflict. - * * * . * * 

"The Senator from Massachusetts, (Mr. 
Sumner,) who has lately been re-elected to 
serve another term of six years in the body he 
has 80 long adorned, should, in this crisis, 
point to us the proper action. His purely 
Northern character, his great abilities, his 
lofty aspirations, his sacrifices for freedom, the 
entire confidence of his state »o spontaneously 



bestowed upon him — and that state the noblest 
in America — all single him out as one author- 
ized and required to speak with a decisive voice 
on this great occasion. 

"There are also in this House, gentlemen 
whose words on this momentous theme, the 
country will listen to with intense inter- 
est. The honorable member from Pennsylva- 
nia, (Thad. Stevens,) one of the truly great 
men of America — full of learning and wisdom 
— tried by long years of arduous service in this 
cause, who has never fiiltered, and is now re- 
elected in his district by overwhelming num- 
bers, stands foremost among those of whom the 
nation will expect deliverance from the dan- 
gers which encompass it. Let these men, and 
such as these speak, and tell the country what 
to do in this hour of transcendent peril. 

"Nevertheless, I cannot refrain from ex- 
pressing my individual opinion that the true 
policy of the North is to terminate this war at 
once. The longer it continues the worse our 
situation becomes. Let the two Houses of Con- 
gress adopt the following resolutions : 

'■'■Resolved hy the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives, §•€., That the Executive be, and 
he is hereby requested to issue a general order 
to all commanders of forces in the several mil- 
itary departments of the United States to dis- 
continue offensive operations against the ene- 
my, and to act in the future entirely on the de- 
fensive. 

^'■Resolved, That the Executive be and he is 
further requested to enter into negotiations 
with the authorities of the Confederate States 
with reference to a cessation of hostilities, 
based on the following propositions: — 1, Re- 
cognition of the independence of the Confed- 
erate States. 2, A uniform system of duties 
upon imports. 3, Free trade between the two 
states. 4, Free navigation of the Mississippi 
river. 5, Mutual adoption of the Monroe doc- 
trine. 

"I entirely disagree with those who assert 
that it is impossible that the North and South 
could live peacably side by side, because there ** 
are no natural boundaries between the two, 
such as Rocky Mountains or the Atlantic 
Ocean. This is a bug-bear with which we im- 
pose upon ourselves. The people of the North 
and South can never become foreign nations to 
each other in the sense in which the French 
and English or Russians are. They are sprung 
from the same origin, speak the same language, 
possess a common literature, inherit similar 
politics and religious views, and inhabit re- 
gions closely connected by natural and arti- 
ficial ties. They will, therefore, both be al- 
ways American. The only great difference be- 
tween them is of a social and political nature, 
namely, that which arises from the existence 
of African slavery in one, and the absence of 
it in the other. 

"This fact, however, presents no obstacle 
whatever to such a separation as is involved in 
independent political jurisdiction; on the con- 
trary, it greatly facilitates it. 

"Before the Federal Union was established, 
all the States were independent, and associated 



98 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



under the Articles of Confederation in the na- 
ture of a treaty. 

"The articles are now adduced to show the 
impracticability of present separation between 
the North and South, with equal good force to 
prove the impossibility of what then actually 
existed and was accepted in the case of the 
thirteen original states of the Union. The lat- 
ter stood toward each other precisely as the 
North and South in the Confederate States, re- 
suming, as to them, the old basis of the Con- 
federation. This would be the whole of U. It 
is, therefore, a very simple operation. 

''I do not suggest this, however, on the idea 
that should it ever be adopted, the separation 
it implies would be permanent. I believe that 
it would insure an ultimate re-union on an an- 
ti-slavery basis. 

"I have confidence in the inherent vitality 
of Northern civilization. I have no fear to set 
in competition with that of the South. Let 
them proceed side by side in the race of em- 
pire, and we shall see which will triumph." 

Now, no Republican denounces Mr. Conway 
for thus offering to give up the ghost, and dis- 
solve the Union, but they all denounce every 
Democrat who talks or thinks in favor of nego- 
tiations for peace on a basis of preserving the 
Union. The difference is just this: Democi'ats 
don't vote the Republican ticket, and Mr. 
Conway does! 

When the conscription bill was before Con- 
gress, Mr. Vallandigham (Dem.) moved to 
so amend, that arrests in the loyal states 
should only be made by warrant, on oath, 
citing the particular offense committed, &c. — 
This the Republicans voted down by 101 to 57. 

No Republican ever talked of arresting Mr. 
Conway for his ebullition of treason, and 
sending him ever the lines, because he votes 
the Republican ticket. He became so bold, by 
sufference, that he even issued his disunion 
bulls from the threshhold of the President's 
mansion, as it were, and still the President 
neither caused his arrest, or censured him. 
The following letter, written from Washington 
to the N. Y. Tribune, the grand receptacle for 
disunion offals, shows that his speech in Con- 
gress was not to be repented of : 

Conway's letter to the tribune — disun- 
ion a "fixed fact." 

"A WORD 
"To THE Editor opihe N. Y. Tribune: 

"Sir: — The recent avowal of Mr. Gerrit 
Smith, that he is in favor of a restoration of 
the Union, even if such restoration should in- 
volve renewed power to slavery, is a slight in- 
dication of that counter revolution in public 
sentiment, on this subject, which the war is 



calculated to effect, and which political lead- 
ers seem determined, through it, to bring 
about. 

"The only period in which there was a ghost 
of a chance of giving this war an anti-slavery 
result, was the first two years ot its existence. 
If it had been taken hold of at the outset, as 
an instrument of revolution, to dissolve the 
Union, and constitute the North a nation, thus 
liberating the Government from all constitu- 
tional obligations to slave hokU'rs, and had 
been rushed through with skill, and energy, 
under wise ministers and competent generals, 
in a manner to give full effect to the power of 
the North, slavery would have been swept out 
of existence, and the seceding states conquered 
to the authority of the Union, and held as sub- 
ject provinces. 

"But this was not done. On the contrary, 
the war was employed as a means to prevent 
revolution, and to maintain the Union. The 
object was to enforce upon slaveholders the 
rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution 
they discarded. For nearly two years, the 
most zealous regard was piid to the "rights," 
and military operations conducted in a manner 
to induce the Southern people to return volun- 
tarily to their Federal allegiance. In conse- 
quence of this policy the golden opportunity slip- 
ped away. The South became a settled and deter- 
mined power — the North lost the prestige of 
victory, and its morale was broken. 

"Thus the war became a failure, and utterly 
ceased to bear upon the question of the subju- 
gation of the South, in any manner, whatso- 
ever, and now whatever may be said to the 
contrary, there are few reflecting minds which 
have not come to the conclusion that J8^* the 
Independence of the South is an established 
fact, whether recognized or not. 

"The war for the future, therefore, becomes 
simply an instrument in the hands of political 
managers to effect results favorable to their 
own personal ends, and unfavorable to the 
cause of freedom. 

"What matters it that a few regiments of 
negroes — more or less — under white ofllicers, 
are sent into the field? What matters it that 
the President's edict of Emancipation is print- 
ed in Little & Brown's edition of the United 
States Statutes at largel Is Richmond ours, 
or even Vicksburg? Does not the Confederacy 
still stand firm and defiant? And does it not 
promise to stand so in the future:- And above 
all, is not the Presidential election approach- 
ingi 

"It is now assuined that the Lnion is an ob- 
ject paramount over all other considerations, 
and we are told that it must never be relin- 
quished. We are told to adhere to the war, 
not because it gives us successful achievements 
in the field, but for the reasons, simply, that 
otherwise, we give up the Union. We are told, 
also, that the institution of slaverj', like all 
other institutions, (see the New York Times of 
to-day), is of minor importance, one way or the 
other, compared with the Union — that it must 
give waj', or not give way — be destroyed, or 
granted a new lease of life, with increased 



SCRAPS FEOM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



99 



power, just as the exigencies of the Union may 
require, and to this doctrine, that life-long Ab- 
olitionist, Gerrit Smith, and that zealous Re- 
publican, Mr. Raymond, and that eminent 
Democrat, Mr. Van Buren, all alike assert 
since the deportation of Vallandigham, it is 
supposed that this is to be the mongrel Demo- 
cratic platform for the next Presidential race. 
"Now, Mr. editor, I desire thus publicly, 
and from the beginning, to announce my em- 
phatic vrish to be counted out of any such ar- 
rangement. I went into this anti-slavery busi- 
ness earnestly, and on the presumption that I 
was acting with honest men — men who hated 
slavery, and were determined to cast it out, 
come what might. I find that as to many of 
them I have been deceived. I find that men 
want power, and care for nothing else, and 
that for the sake of power they would kill all 
the white people of the South, or take them to 
their arms — that they would free all the slaves, 
or make their bondage still more hopeless, or 
do any other inconsistent wicked thing. I have 
no sympathy whatever for such an unhallowed 
lust of dominion. 

"As to the Union, I would not give a cent 
for it, unless it stood as a guarantee for free- 
dom to every man^ ivoman and child within its 
entire jurisdiction. I consider the idea that 
everything must be sacrificed to the Union, as 
utterly preposterous. What was the Union 
made for? That we should sacrifice ourselves 
to it? I, for one, would beg to be excused. — 
As things stand, I would sacrifice the Union to 
freedom any morning before breakfast! 

"Verj' truly yours, M. F. CONWAY. 

"Washington, May 29, 1S63." 

" GOD OPPOSED TO THE UNION AS IT WAS." 

Wm. Lloyd Garrison, in a speech in Phil- 
adelphia, in the fall of of 1863, said: 

"Since the war broke out there has been no 
Union. How did it happen that the Union 
was broken in the twinkling of an eye? The 
God of the oppressed has done it. The laws of 
justice and right are vindicating the commands 
of God. 'Woe to the rebellious children,' 
saith the Lord, 'that taketh not their counsel 
of me.' In spite of our experience, there are 
thousands of men yet in favor of the policy of 
restoring the Union as it was. As well might 
a man blown up by a bombshell propose, in 
the other land, to come back again and have 
the experiment tried over again with the bomb- 
thell as it was. [Laughter.]" 

There are many who profess to ignore the 
idiosnycracies of Mr. Garrison, and yet, by 
their acts acknowledge him as their co-laborer 
and leader. He is a veteran agitator, and hes- 
itates not to boldly avow his treasonable aims, 
while others are vile enough to conceal theirs. 
Garrison's "Union" was always a bomb- 
shell, and he always managed to explode it to 
the damage of the Union. 



god respon'sible for emancipation. 

The Wisconsin Puritan, November, 1863, 
said : 

"When in years past we prayed and talked 
in behalf of the bondmen of our laud, we had 
no conception of the way by which those in 
bonds were to be made free. * -^ ■» God 
has chosen this process because he sees it the 
best, because in justice the circumstances de- 
mand it." 

The Abolitionists declared that God had de- 
creed emancipation in the West Indies, but 
after much experience, few will admit that God 
had any hand in it. It is nothing short of im- 
pious blasphemy for abolitionists to charge the 
Deity with their acts, in hopes to escape the 
just odium which comes after them. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

MORE REPUBLICAN VOMITINGS OF DISUNION AND 
TREASON. 

Tho True Object of the War [the Negro] Arowc-d by the 
"N. Y. luciependent "...Beecher and the '•.Sheepskin 
Parchment "...Nest Eggs of Treason : Laid by Wendell 
Phillips, Lloyd Garrison, Abraham Lincoln, American 
Anti-Slavery Society, F. E. Spinner, J. S. Pike; anoth- 
er by Phillips and Garrison; and one by tho " Chicago 
Tribune "...Ingersoll invests Lincoln with the Power of 
the Caar of Russia. ..J. W. Forney on silencing " Laws 
and Safeguards "...The Abolition Conspiracy in the 
Kew York Riots : Important Testimony. ..The Union 
Not Worth Preserving. ..Tricks of the Ohio Abolition- 
ists. ..The Revolutionary Spirit at Work... "New York 
Tribune" advocating Mobs and Riots against Law- 
Sen. Howe would " Do in the Name of God what can't 
be done in the Name of the Constitutiuu "...Phillips, 
Peace and Dissolution. ..This War a '•Barbarian Con- 
fjuest." 

THE OBJECT OF THE WAR AVOWED. 

The N. Y. Independent, more honest than 
most of its co-members, just after the procla 
mation was issued, thus let the cat out of the 
bag as to the object it and its friends had in 
bringing on the war, and refusing all means to 
suppress it: 

"It has been our peculiar misfortune to be so 
tied up by civil restrictions, that the Govern- 
ment could not perform any act of justice, in 
consonance with the spirit of our age and the 
spirit of our constitution, without stepping 
over into the dangerous ground of revolution. 
Only war could give to the Pi-esideut liberty to 
emancipate. And now, he advances to an act 
of supreme justice and humanity by ways 
sound and constitutional, opened by the mad- 
nes of the South. The sword has cut the knot 
that statesmen and economists could not untie. 
The war which at first seemed an awful disas- 
ter, a stupendous folly, has, indeed, proved to 
be a folly, but a Divine folly: 'Because the 



100 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



foolishness of God is wiser than men: and the 
weakness of God is stronger than men.' * * 

"The nation is committed. Either there 
must be reTolution in the North, or else all 
dissentients must submit, and the North stand 
as a mighty unit with the President! * * 

"This proclamation is like Ithurial's rod. — 
It will turn every toad to his true infernal 
form. A distinction between supporting the 
war, and opposing the war policy. They are 
routed without a battle. They must go over 
to the South or take sides with the Administra- 
tion. Public sentiment will compel the latter 
course. It will be impossible, then, to per- 
suade the South, hereafter, that the North did 
not mean to injure her institutions. 'I, Abra- 
ham Lincoln, President of the United States 
of America, and commander-in7Chief of the 
army and navy thereof, do hereby proclaim 
and declare.' This is the authorized voice of 
the nation It is the hand-writing on the wall. 
That proclamation cannot be suppressed. Its 
edict cannot be rubbed out. Th3 Southern eye 
reads, hnene, ieckel, vphardn? 

"No more guises and vails. No more side 
issues. No more deceiptful compromises. The 
Government has taken ground, and every man 
in the nation must take ground. You are for 
or against this Government, and this Govern- 
ment is declared to mean Liberty to the Slave! 
There is no neutral ground for traitors to hide 
in, playing wolf by night and sheep by day. The 
President's Proclamation will sift the North, 
give unity to its people, simplicity to its poli- 
cy, liberty to its army! That whole army is no 
longer a mongrel something between a police 
force and a political caucus. It is an army or- 
ganized to strike where blows will be most 
felt." 

It will be seen that this agitating organ, 
scouts the idea that the North in the beginning 
did not "mean to injure Southern institutions." 
All know that was the means to gain an end, 
and Beeciier is unsophisticated enough to ad- 
mit it. 

This same Beecuer, in Plymouth Church, 
in 1863, said: 

"I know it is said that the President is not 
the government; that the Constitution is the 
government. What! a sheepskin parchment a 
government? I should think it was a very fit 
one for some men that I hear and see some- 
times. What is a government in our country? 
It is a body of living men ordained by the peo- 
ple to administer public affairs according to 
laws that are written in a constitution and in 
the statute books, and the government is the 
living men that are administering in a certain 
method the aSairs of the nation. It is not a 
dry writing or a book. President Lincoln, his 
Cabinet, the heads of the executive depart- 
ments, are the government, and men have got 
to take their choice whether they will go 
against their government or go with them." 



Upon which a Connecticut paper justly re- 
marks as follows: 

"Is this not another foreshadowing of des- 
potism? The 'sheepskin parchment' as Beech- 
er terms it, is to give place to Mr. Lincoln and 
his cabinet, who are the government, and men 
have got to take sides. Such assertions could 
only be made at this time, with the freedom of 
the press palsied, and the freedom of speech 
stifled in government dungeons." 

NEST EGGS OF TREASON. 

It is a favorite term of reproach by the abo- 
lition newspapers against Charleston that it 
was the "nest of the rebellion." If it be true 
that it was the nest where the eggs of rebellion 
were hatched, it is not true that it was the nest 
where the eggs of rebellion were laid. That 
nest was situated considerably to the North- 
east of Charleston, in the region popularly 
known as New England, and eggs of rebellion 
were laid in it as long ago as 1815, by men as- 
sembled at Hartford, in the state of Connecti- 
cut, whose conclave is historical by the name 
of the "Hartford Convention." Other eggs 
were laid in it in 1844, when the Legislature of 
Massachusetts resolved that the annexation of 
Texas would be the cause of the dissolution of 
the Union. A great many other eggs have 
since been laid in it, by a great many men and 
a great many public meetings, both in and out 
of New England. Here is one laid by Wen- 
dell PuiLLirs: 

" The Constitution of our fathers was amis- 
take. Tear it in j^i^ces and make a better. — 
Don't say the machine is out of order; it is in 
order; it does what its framers intended — pro- 
tect slavery. Our aim is disunion, breaking 
up of the states! I have shoV^n you that our 
work cannot be done under our institutions." 

Here is one laid by Wm. Lloyd Garrison: 

"This Union is a lie! The American Union 
is an imposition — a covenant with death, and 
an agreement with hell! * * * I am for 
its overthrow! * * * Up with the flag of 
disunion, that we may have a free and glori- ' 
ous Republic of our own; and when the hour 
shall come, the hour will have arrived that 
shall witness the overthrow of slavery." 

Here is another laid by Garrison: 

"No act of ours do we regard with more con- 
scientious approval or higher satisfaction — 
none do we submit more confidently to the tri- 
bunal of Heaven and the moral verdict of man- 
kind, than when, several years ago, on the 
4th of July, in the presence of a great assem- 
bly, we committed to the flames the Constitu- 
tion of the United States." 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



101- 



Here is another laid by Lincoln: 

"I believe this government cannot endure 
permanently half slave and half free." 

Here are three laid by the American Anti- 
Slavery Society at one of its anniversary meet- 
ings: 

'■'■Resolved, That secession from the United 
States government is the daty of every aboli- 
tionist, since no one can take office, or deposit 
his vote under its constitution without violat- 
ing his anti-slavery principles, and rendering 
himself an abettor to the slaveholder in his 
sin. 

'■'■Resolved, That years of warfare against the 
slave power have convinced us that every act 
done in support of the American Union rivits 
the chain of the slave— that the only exodus of 
the slave to freedom, unless it be one of blood, 
must be over the remains of the present Amer- 
ican Church, and the grave of the present 
Union. 

'■^Resolved, That the abolitionists of this 
country should make it one of the primary ob- 
jects of this agitation, to Dissolve the Am- 
erican Union. 

Here is one laid by the present Assistant 
Secretary of the Treasury— Frahcis E. Spin- 
ner — during the Fremont campaign: 

"Should this (the election of Fremont) fail, 
no true man would be any longer safe here from 
the assaults of the arrogant slave oligarchy, 
who then would rule with an iron hand. For 
the free North would be left the choice of a 
peaceful dissolution of the Union, a civil war 
which would end in the same, or an uncondi- 
tional surrender of every principle held dear 
by freemen." 

Here is one laid by James S. Pike, long 
editorially connected with the New York Tri- 
bune, and now Minister to the Netherlands: 

"I have no doubt that the free and slave 
states ought to separate. The Union is not 
worth supporting in connection with the 
South." 

Here is one laid by Wendell Phillips 
shortly after the organization of the Republi. 
can party. He was speaking of that party: 

"No man has a right to be surprised at this 
state of things. It is just what we abolition- 
ists and disunionists have attempted to bring 
about. It is the first sectional party ever or- 
ganized in this countiy. It does not know its 
own face, and calls itselr national; but it is not 
national — it is sectional. The Republican party 
is a party of the North pledged against the 
South." 

Here is one laid by Wm. Llotd Garrison 
at about the same time: 

"The Republican party is moulding public 
sentiment in the right direction for the specific 



work the Abolitionists are striving to accom 
plishjviz.: The dissolution of the Union, and 
the abolition of slavery throughout the lund.^' 

Here is one laid by the Chicago Tribune in 
December, I860: 

"Not a few of the republican journals of the 
interior are working themselves up to the be- 
lief, which they are endeavoring to impress 
upon their readers, that the seceded States, be 
they few or many, will be whipped back into 
the Union. We caution all such that in lan- 
guage of that sort they are adding new fuel to 
the flame which is already blazing too fiercely; 
and that the probabilities now are that the re- 
sult will prove them to be false prophets. No 
man knows what public policy may demand of 
the incoming administration; but the drift of 
opinion seems to be that, if peaceable secession 
is possible, the retiring States will be assisted 
to go, that this needless and bitter controversy 
may be brought to an end. If the Union is to 
be dissolved, a bloodless separation is by all 
means to be coveted. Do not let us make that 
impossible." 

These were the eggs of treason which were 
hatched out in the Charleston nest. 

THE right to suspend THE CONSTITUTION 

claimed. 
E. C. Ingersoll, Republican candidate for 
Congress at large, in Illinois, at Bryan Hall, 
in Chicago, in 1862, said: 

"The President, in such a time, I believe, 
is clothed with power as full as that of the 
Czar of Russia over the question. 

"If it be necessary, perhaps it is just as well 
for the people to become familiar with this 
power, and the right to its exercise, now as at 
any other time. 

"If the. President should determine that in 
order to crush the rebellion the Constitution 
itself should be suspended during the rebel- 
lion, I believe he has the right to do it." 

If such teaching as this is not calculated to 
impress one with the idea of approaching des- 
potism, then nothing can. 

LAWS and safeguards TO BE SILENCED. 

John W. Forney, editor of the Philadel- 
phia Press, over the nom de plume of "Occa- 
sional," writes to his paper : 

"Let us unite the North by any means. — 
AYhen men no longer volunteer let there be 
conscription. Silence every tongue that does 
not speak with respect of the cause and the 
flag. Do away with politics, with luxuries, 
with comforts. Let us cease for the present to 
speak of laws and restrictions, and what are 
called safeguards." 

All know the intimate connection of Mr. 
Forney with the Administration, and hence 



102 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



such declarations, like double shotted guns, 
carry "long range," and promise heavy exe- 
cution. 

AN ABOLITION CONSPIRACY. 

The official reports of Gen. Wool and Gen. 
Sanford throw much light on the dark subject 
of the New York riots. It is alleged by both 
the Her aid (Lincoln paper) and the World^ 
that the riots were prolonged three days by 
the operations of the Abolition authorities, 
who were determined to place New York under 
martial law, and not permit Gov. Seymour to 
carry off the honor of putting down the riot. 
In short, the Abolition authorities threw every 
obstacle they could in Gov. Seymour's way, 
with a view to use the riot for political pur- 
poses. The following, from the Worlds shows 
up the Abolition interference, without mincing 
the matter: 

"In the light of these considerations, it will 
be easy to understand the remarkable facts 
which are stated with the naked simplicity of 
an annalist, by General Wool. The Mayor is a 
Republican; the police are under llGpublican 
control; so long, therefore, as the disturbances 
were slight, Provost Marshal Nugent depend- 
ed on the police to arrest them. When they 
became formidable, the Mayor requested the 
assistance of General Wool, assigning the ab- 
sence of the militia regiments as a reason for 
doing so. thus making a fresh Republican re- 
cognition of the principle that the suppression 
of the riot was the proper business of the local 
authorities. General Wool promptly acceded 
to the Mayor's request. The troops under his 
command in the forts being insufficient, he 
made application to Governor Seymour, who 
promptly furnished such militia as was within 
reach, and placed it under the command of 
General Sandford. 

"Thus far, everything had been done with- 
out any interference from Washington, all the 
authorities and officers acting in perfect har- 
mony. General Wool, who seems to have had 
no other motive than an honest desire to pre- 
serve that harmony and make short work of it 
with the rioters, directed that Major General 
Sandford, of the militia, should command the 
force of mixed militia and regulars assembled 
for the restoration of order, and that Brigadier 
General Brown, of the United States service, 
should act under his orders. What messages 
were interchanged between parties here and 
the authorities at Washington, during that and 
the two following days, the public have no 
means of knowing; it is certain that the tele- 
graph was busy, and th.at the Administration 
felt a keen interest in all that was transpiring. 
It immediately became evident that the harmo- 
ny between the state and Federal authorities, 
which General Wool was so wisely attempting 



to promote, was distasteful to the Administra- 
tion, and was by some means to be broken. 

" We know not by whose inspiration General 
Brown first volunteered his services to General 
Wool, and, to make sure of their acceptance, 
offered to serve in any capacity. I3ut by 
whomsoever inspired, he immediately refused 
to obey Gen. Sandford's orders. This led to 
the issue by Gen. Wool of an order formally 
installing Gen. Sandford as commander of all 
the troops for the defence of the city, and re- 
quiring implicit obedience to his orders. The 
consequence was that the same evening Gen. 
Browe came to Gen. Wool, complaining of Gen. 
Sandford, and asking to be excused from the 
operations of the order. As he still persisted, 
after Gen. Wool's explanations, he was reliev- 
ed from duty, and an order was immediately 
issued putting Col. Nugent in charge of the 
regular troops. 

"This was Monday night. What messages 
passed between New York and Washington 
during the night must be left to conjecture. — 
Early the next morning, General Brown pre- 
sented himself again to General Wool, con- 
fessed that he had been wrong, and asked to 
be restored to the position he had too hastily 
abandoned. Was this prompt rerontance the 
consequence of a reprimand from Washington? 
Had General Brown been taken to task for his 
want of skill or want of perseverance in the 
attempt to nullify the authority of General 
Sanford? That he would unpTomj)ted have 
made this humiliating profession of penitence 
is incredible, especially as his subsequent 
course showed it to be a piece of pure dis- 
simulation 

"It was a mere trick to get back; once back, 
he made it his business to disobey and thwart 
General Sanford, even going so far as to issue 
orders to troops stationed at the latter's head- 
quarters, and treating him with as little con- 
sideration as if a Major General's commission 
given by State authority were no better than a 
piece of blank parchment. He did not succeed 
in nullifying General Sanford's authority, and 
was therefore aismissed; but he did succeed in 
seriously obstructing and postponing the sup- 
pression of the riot. General Sanford states 
that the peace of the city would have been en- 
tirely restored as early as Tuesday, the second 
day of the riot, had it not been for the ob- 
structive proceedings of General Brown. Thus 
we are indebted for the two worst days and the 
most fearful scenes of the riot to the Republi- 
can conspiracy against state sovereignty." 

We copy copiously from the Herald as fol- 
lows: 

"The Real Conspiracy in the Late 
Riot. — The mystery that enveloped the events 
of the week of terror in this city is fast being 
cleared away. The nest of the conspirators 
has been probed, and they now stand before 
the public in their hideous forms. When we 
saw the Tribune. Times and Post, day after 
day, amidst the tumultuous and trying scenes 
in this city, mled with bitter, acrimonious and 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



103 



bloodthirsty articles, we concluded that there 
was some secret under and behind all the dis- 
turbances, which was purposely hidden from 
the general public. Time has verified our sus- 
picions. Facts that have come to light within 
the last few days conclusively prove that the 
incendiary course of the radical journals was 
prompted solely by a fixed determination to in- 
crease the extent of the riot and to force a 
collision between the State and national au- 
thorities. 

"The latter Doint accomplished, it was to be 
followed with the declaration of martial law, a 
military Governor, and all the appliances that 
this Satanic radical committee, with Greeley, 
Raymond, Godwin & Co. at its head, with its 
dozen or fifteen tails, could bring to bear to 
control future elections in this city. They were 
foiled in their evil and bloody work by the tact 
and skill of Generals Wool and Sandford, with 
the co-operation of Governor Seymour. The 
riot and sufl'ering and the reign of terror were, 
however, extended by them at least three days 
by their nefarious work. 

"How these radical conspirators tampered 
with the military is shown by the reports of 
Generals Wool and Sauford. The letter of the 
former states that on Monday afternoon (13lh) 
General Harvey Brown tendered his services. 
His offer was accepted, and he was directed to 
report to Major General Sanford. It was soon 
found that General Brown did not act in har- 
mony with General Sandford. General Wool 
thereupon issued an order; but this Brown 
did not obey, but presented himself in the eve- 
ning, asking to be excused from the operations 
of the order. This Gen. AVool refused to grant 
him, declaring: 

"That for efficient operations, a hearty co-operatiou of 
the State and United i>tates troops with the police was 
necessary to put down tliemob." 

"General Brown persisting, he was excused 
from further service. Mark the sequel. The 
next morning the radical papers denounced the 
military authorities in unmeasured terms and 
howled for martial law. General Brown also 
appeared about eight o'clock in the morning at 
General Wool's headquarters and asked to be 
re-instated, "saying, in substance, that he was 
in the wrong.'' He was reinstated. What then? 
The same authority states that he acted with- 
out any reference to General Sandford. 

"Right here comes in the important testi- 
mony of General Sanford. The latter, in his 
official report, asserts 

" 'That the rioters were dispersed on Monday night and 
Tuesday morning, and the peace of the city would have 
been restored in a few hours but for the interferauce of 
Brevet Brigadier General Brown, who, in disobedience of 
the orders of General Wool, withdrew the detachments 
belonging to the general government.'" 

"This act so weakened the small military 
force in the city that it was again placed at the 
mercy of the rioters, and the bloody scenes 
were continued two or three days longer. The 
Tribune clamored the next morning for the re- 
moval of Gen. Wool. 

" Thus we have the official testimony that 
Gen. Brown was used by the radicals. It is a 



well known fact, that General Wool and Sand- 
ford were in frequent consultation with Gov- 
ernor Seymour, and that these three officials 
worked together in harmony. Brown, on the 
other hand, was no doubt urged to ask to be 
reinstated by the little Satanic committees com- 
posed of Greeley, Raymond and Godwin, they 
fearing that unless he was there to interfere 
with the plans of Seymour, Wool and Sandford 
the riots would be put down and their plans of 
martial law and conflict between the state and 
national authorities defeated. 

"Brown's reinstatement was essentially ne- 
cessary for the success of their schemes. — 
Hence the pretended confession that he was 
wrong. General Brown is no doubt a member 
of a church in good standing and a good mili- 
tary officer. He has done good service for his 
country at Fort Pickens and other points, and 
like Phelps and Hunter, is a good fighter, 
when the ne^ro is not about. But hold up the 
negro to such men and they forget all their 
military "khoVledge. The radicals held up 
the nigger and nigger party to Brown, and all 
military ability departed except for mischief." 

If the above facts, which are corroborated 
in every particular by the official reports of 
Generals Wool and S.'Vnford, do not show 
that the New York riot was fanned and fed by 
the Abolitionists, if not by the Administration 
itself, for the purpose of aiding the Republi- 
can party, then the sun does not shine. 

"such a union not worth perpetuating." 
During the excitement of the Oberlin riots, 
Mr. Langdon, an Ohio Abolitionist, said: 

"But why preserve the Union, when its only 
object is to eternize slavery? Such a Union 
is not worth perpetuating. With all my heart 
I should say. let it be abolished! I hate the 
Union of these states as I hate the devil! for by 
it I am denied all protection for my personal 
liberty " 

A delegation from Lorain county, Ohio, 
turned out to resist the law, and to commit 
treason to their Government, by engaging in 
the Oberlin riots in 1859. [See Ohio State 
Journal, (Rep.) May 26, 1859.] The band 
that accompanied the delegation, played the 
revolutionary "Marsellaise hymn," — the char- 
acters "1776" were inscribed upon their ban- 
ners. One banner was inscribed on one side 
"Lorain," and on the other 

"Here is the Government. 
Let tyrants beware." 

The "Government" was not then located in 
the White Palace — the mob was then "the Gov- 
ernment." 

A speaker at this mobocratic gathering said: 

"Steady, trust in God and keep your powder 
dry, and look for the things that shall be." 



104 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



Another said: 

'•Let tlie Federal authority make the issue 
and test the fact whether we will execute OUR 
LAWS. They know not how soon the smoul- 
dering volcano will burst under their rotton 
carcases." 

One of the resolutions passed by that mob 
declared: 

"That the enforcement of such laws (the 
Fugitive law) against an unwilling people, is 
productive only of evils threatening the public 
order and stability of governmental institu- 
tions." 

This reminds us of the ancient maiden, when 
stoves were first put up in buildings and 
churches. She had heard that stoves were un- 
healthy, and insisted on fainting in church one 
day because the majority of the Society would 
insist on putting up "one of them pesky 
stoves." It turned out that there was no fire 
in the stove at the time of fainting, but never- 
theless, the anti-stove party insisted that the 
stove was the cause of the church difficulty, 
and the church was actually split up and di- 
vided because the stubborn majority would in- 
sist on patronizing the stove. But the se- 
ceders would never own that the rebellion that 
broke hearts and religious ties, was in any de- 
gree attributable to them, when if they had 
not created dissensions ivlthout cause, all 
would have been well. 

THE REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT AT WORK. 

The following short paragraph, from the Lea- 
venworth Bulletin, concerning the state of af- 
fairs along the Missouri and Kansas state line, 
tells more than whole volumes, the nature of 
that revolutionary spirit we are considering: 

"The General Order, requiring all to leave 
the border counties, has been carried out. All 
persons found without proper papers are shot 
at sight " 

Jim Lane, a "Border Ruffian" United 
States Senator, is the reported author of that 
"order." And yet to complain of these things 
subjects the complainant to the charge of 
"sympathizers with the rebellion." 

"evangelists, rebels and rioters." 
In 1854, when Anthony BtrRNs, a fugitive, 
was in the custody of the law, at Boston, — 
when a mob, of the rabble, backed by the pious 
and virtuous (?) undertook to "resist" the ex- 
ecution of the law, and by violence prevent its 
execution — when poor Bachelder, a white 
man, was murdered in cold blood, for stand- 



ing at his place of duty, as an officer of the 
law — when treason run riot in Massachusetts, 
the New York Tribune thus came to the "res- 
cue" of the rescuers : 

"The Rev. T. W. Higginson, cf Worcester, 
Massachusetts, is on bail for §3,000 to respond 
to the charge of inciting a riot in Boston, at 
the time of the attempted rescue of Antony 
Burns. We don't know that Mr. H. did any- 
thing toward effecting the rescue of Burns, 
but he doubtless would have done it if he could, 
and now regrets that he did not succeed. — 
AVhen U. S. marshals find it necessary to 
surround themselves with armed cohorts of jail 
birds, blacklegs, and brothel bullies, in order 
to prevent a rescue by the honest yeomanry 
who crowd the streets, it is pretty safe to pre- 
sume that every real minister of the gospel 
stands opposed to the blacklegs and bullies. — 
AVhen kidnappers are the chief saviors of the 
Union, of course evangelists will be rebels and 
rioters." 

Thus, when the courts were protecting the 
authority of the Government, and endeavoring 
to prevent rebellion from usurping the throne 
of law, this leading organ of the exclusively 
"loyal" party was endeavoring to overthrow 
the constitutional powers by the "gospel of 
riot," and to evangelize the heathens of legal 
power with "thirty thousand bayonets" in the 
hands of an "honest yeomanry," and by dis- 
placing provost marshals with pious ministers 
of the "gospel of riot," to bring on the mil- 
lennium, when "evangelists will be rebels and 
rioters." And when the "Government" was 
invoked to show its power for law and order, 
against the organized " Anti-Fugitive-Law 
League," in Wisconsin, the programme of said 
Leaguers was quoted by the New York Tri- 
bune, with fiendish delight, as follows: 

"As Freemen, we can and will stand it no 
longer. 

"We will stand by the rescuers of Glover, 
with our influence, our purses, and our right 
arms. No court shall crush them; no prison 
bars and walls shall ever confine them." 

From the courts to the league in 1854; from 
the courts to the army in 1863. The appeal 
is the same; the last resort of the fanatic is 
still the last resort of the despot; self-will su- 
preme over law; passion supreme over reason; 
force, and force alone, the final arbiter of 
states and men. Such is the disposition of the 
evane;elist, of those who exclaim, "away with 
him" — "down with the Government," when 
they are out of power — and — "If you oppose 
us you oppose the Government"— when in 
power. 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



105 



■WHAT THE CONSTITUTION WILL NOT PERMIT 
DO "in THE NAME OF GOD." 

When the bill was before the U. S. Senate 
amending the act of 1790, relative to the call- 
ing out the militia, so as to call out slaves, &c., 

Mr. Browning, (rep.) of Illinois, moved to 
so amend that the wives and children of sold- 
ier slaves belonging to rebels should be set free 
instead of freeing all, including those belong- 
ing to loyal union men. 

Mr. Cowan, (rep.) of Pennsylvania, was in 
favor of the amendment. He said: 

"The country had prospered under the Con- 
stitution, and we are bound by it." 

Mr. Howe, (rep.) of Wisconsin, said there 
seemed to be some difficulty as to how we 
should support our Generals. There were too 
wany controversies. 

Mr. Cowan asked: 

"Does not the Constitution exist? Are we 
not bound by it? 

Mr. Howe — "We arc bound by it. Yes, we 
are bound by it, and bound to battle for it, and 
not stand here higgling about the force we are 
to send into the field. I would bring all the 
force into the field I could, not caring what the 
color of it might bu. Bring the negroes into 
the field in the name of God if we cannot do 
it in the name of the Constitution!'^ 

WENDELL PHILLIPS AT BEECHER'S TABER- 
NACLE. 

Wendell Phillip s, the great war horse of 
the radical party in power, made a speech in 
Bbecher's Political Synagogue, in 1S6"3, in 
which he declared: 

"This is not a war of sections — it is a war 
of ideas — ending only when one idea strangles 
another, and not before. Peace comes when 
freedom holds the helm, and not before. Now, 
I would accept anything on the anti-slavery 
basis. I would accept separation. I would ac- 
cept cowiipromise. I would accept Union [the 
last and least with Phillips]. I would accept 
peace, and pay the whole Confederate debt, at 
par, on the anti-slavery basis." 

"absolute BARBARIAN CONQUEST." 

In the same speech this Abolition-martinet 
advocated the killing of the whites at the South 
and giving their estates to the negroes, and 
strange to say his hearers cheered the senti- 
ment. He declared that the Richmond of the 
South lay in two millions of blacks, and con- 
I tinued: 

"If this be true of the two extremes of the 
Confederacy, what remains? Why, only the 
solid centre, the great Gibralter, the rich plant 
tations, and the accumulated blacks, ^tha- 
8 



make a girdle round the Gulf, should be ap- 
proached by the news that wherever it plants its 
flag, it should declare 'there is nothing here 
but people and land.' The land is ours — con- 
fiscated, guaranteed; its title given to the sol- 
dier who has finished his service. Give it to 
the black man, who is willing to take it, and 
plant a state, under the guarantee of the 
Union — employ free labor upon that fertile 
soil, and commence again the civil mahcinery, 
the organization of astute, 

"I do not believe in battles ending this war. 
This is a war of ideas. You may plant a fort 
in every district of the South — you may take 
possession of her capitals, and hold them with 
armies, but you have not begun to subdue her. 
You don't annihilate a thing simply by abolish- 
ing it. The most successful superintendent of 
contrabands at Fortress Monroe, is begging of 
this timid, dilatory, indecisive government, to 
allow him to take possession of the abandoned 
plantations, and put the vagrant contraband, 
who is not allowed to work upon those acres, 
and make him self-supporting. A government 
has to be besieged and entreated before it can 
be brought to see that the conquest of Virginia 
is not to be had on the Rappahannock, but it 
is to be affected at Fortress Monroe, when the 
negro puts his foot upon the soil and owns it. 
I know this seems extreme doctrine. I know 
that it seems something like absolute barbarian 
conquest. I allow it. I don't believe there 
will be any peace until 347,000 slave holders 
are either hung or exiled. [Cheers.] History 
shows no precedent of getting rid of an aris- 
tocracy like this, except by the death of thg 
geneimtion." 

This same Wendell Phillips, in a speech 
at Cincinnati, since the war commenced, 
boasted that 

"1 have labored nineteen years to take six- 
teen States out of this Union." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE ADMINISTRATION UNDER THE BAN OF THE 
"BALANCE OF POWER." 

Power and Influence of the Abolitionists over tlio Admin- 
istration. ..Tiie Leading Abolitionists Feted and Provided 
with Place and Power.. .Saperstition and Intolerance... 
17915, ISOO, ISU and 1864 Compared. ..The Bitjotry and 
Intolerance of To-Day Borrowed from the Piicrims— A 
Chapter from the Puritans. ..Blue Lights and Blue Laws 
...The Act Suspending the Writ of IIabe;is Corpus, in 
full. ..Ayes and Noes on said Bill, Politically Classified... 
"New York Tribune" on Peace... Old Abe and the 
Union as it was," &c. 

THE POWER AND INFLUENCE OF ABOLITION- 
ISTS. 

We are aware that the Republicans seek to 
parry the effect of the extreme abolition de- 
clarations, by assuring us that those who utter 
them have little or no influence, and conse- 
quently can do no harm. Indeed, it's just tke 



lOG 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



reply of the Wisconsin State Journal to the 
Wisconsin Patriot, when it quoted a brace of 
Phillips' treasonable paragraphs, but it was 
not long before Phillips was invited by a 
.Republican to lecture in the city where those 
two papers are published. Mr. Hastings, the 
Republican State Treasurer waited upon the 
great disunionist and traitor — received him at 
the depot in high livery — escorted him through 
the city as Canadian cockneys would a "Lion 
from London." 

We assert, without fear of contradiction, 
that the class of Radicals from whose speeches 
and resolves we have so liberally quoted, and 
shall yet quote, have more influence over the 
Administration to-day, and the shaping its pol- 
icy, than all those who style themselves ''Con- 
servative Republicans," combined. It was the 
clamors of the Radicals that forced from the 
President the Proclamation, but a few days 
after he refused to issue it. 

Let us inquire the whereabouts and status 
of some of the leading Abolitionists. 

Where is Senator Wade, who declared there 
was no Union? 

In the United States Senate, as one of the 
President's constitutional advisers. 

Where is Senator Hale, who in 1850, intro- 
duced petitions for a dissolution of the Union? 

In the United States Senate, as one of the 
President's censtitutional advisers. 

Where is Charles Sumneb, who said at 
Worcester, the 7th of September, 1854, that it 
was the duty of the people to resist a law, even 
after it was decided constitutional by the high- 
est Federal Court? 

In the United States Senate, re-elected as 
one of the President's constitutional advisers. 

Where is Mr. Sewaed, the author of the 
"Irrepressible Conflict,'' and who voted to re- 
ceive a petition for Dissolution of the Union, 
in 1848? 

In Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet. 

Where, to-day, do you find the man who de- 
clared thao any people had the right to revolu- 
tionize their Government, and establish anoth- 
er — who pronounced the Mexican war a wicked 
war, and declared that this Union could "not 
exist half free and half blave," and bestows 
the blessings of his power on those who have 
for over a quarter of a century denounced the 
Government of our fathers? 

Acting as President of the United States! 



Where, to-day, is Owen Lovejoy, the man 
who moved to table a resolution which ignored 
the establishment of a despotism on the ruins 
of this Government? 

A member of the American Congress. 

Where are the seventy-eight Republicans 
who voted with Owen Lovejoy to table said 
resolution? 

High in the Republican synagogue. 

Where, to-day, is Thadeus Stevens, who 
scouted the idea that he obeyed his oath to 
support the Constitution, in voting to dismem- 
ber Virginia? 

Chairman of the most important committee 
in the American House of Representatives. 

Where, to-day, is Bingham, the man who 
declared that slavery or the Union must 
pei'ish? 

In Congress, a leader among the "loyal." 

Where, to-day, is N. P. Banks, whose easy 
loyally would "let the Union slide?" 

A Major General in the loyal army. 

Where to-day is Cassius M. Clay, whore- 
fused to fight for his country, unless he could 
have his way about slavery? 

First appointed Minister to Russia, then 
honored with the commission and salary of a 
Major General, with plenty to eat and nothing 
to do. 

Where have you found Anson Bukling- 
game, the Abolitionist who declared for a new 
Constitution, a new bible — a new God — in 
short, a new deal all round? 

Appointed by Jlr. Lincoln to drink tea and 
eat ornamental mince pies in the Celestial Em- 
pire. 

Where to-day do you find Joshua R. Gid- 
DiNGs, who in 1848 introduced a petition for 
the dissolution of the Union? 

As Mr. Lincoln's Consul to the Canadas. 

Where do you find Hannibal Hamlin, the 
Vice President of the United States? 

Leaving tne presiding officer's chair to wel- 
come Wendell Phillips upon the floor of the 
Senate, a courtesy rarely accorded to any civ- 
ilian. 

Where to-day do you find Horace Greeley, 
the man who stigmatized the American flag as 
a "flaunting lie," and cried, "tear it down?" 

As the editor of the leading Republican pa- 
per in America. 

Where now is Wm. Lloyd Garrison, who 
pronounced our Constitution a '-covenant with 
death, an agreement with hell?" 



SCRAPS FROM MV SCRAP-BOOK 



107 



You will find him feted by Republicans, and 
addressing "loyal Union" meetings! 

Thus, we might go on ad infinitum, and show 
that each and every one from whom we have 
quoted "disloyal," "disunion," and "treason- 
able" sentiments, are now high in the confi- 
dence and employ of the party in power. Why, 
as Wexdell Phillips said, the Republicans 
" don't know their own f:\ces." They are now 
even ahead of the abolitionists of old. One 
cannot find a leading Republican of to-day who 
will acknowledge he would be in favor of the 
old Union which Gakrison declared to be a 
"covenant with death, an agreement with hell" 
— they and Garrison believe the same thing 
now, and the reason that Garrison has not 
some pet office, is, that he is honest in his de- 
nunciations of our Union, and will not take an 
oath to support the Constitution, while his Re- 
publican co-workers will, with a mental reser- 
vation to destroy it. 

SUPERSTITION AND INTOLERANCE. 

A man's peculiar natural characteristics are 
not guaged by his belief, but his belief, whim 
or caprice, are often the offsprings of his nat- 
ural, or national characteristics. AVhat a vast 
difference have we always observed between the 
two great leading parties of this country, even 
from its earliest period. The Federals, in 
power from 1796 to ISOO, were arrogant, con- 
ceited and intolerant. They could not bear to 
tolerate the least opposition to, or criticism 
upon their measures. No matter how wild or 
destructive those measures, all must tamely 
acquiesce, without complaint. The sedition 
law was the offspring of this partizan reticence. 
Opposition was sure to call down on the victim, 
persecution. 

Nor did the Federals waive this intolerance 
when they went out of power, but they kept it 
up, insisting on their prerogative to force obe- 
dience to their behests, and more than toler- 
ance of their dogmas. 

Nor has this particular characteristic for- 
saken that classification of men to the present 
hour. Witness their inflamatory denunciations 
of all those who do not endorse their every ex- 
treme idiosyucracy. You must believe that 
slavery ought to be abolished, constitution or 
no constitution, or you are a "traitor." You 
must believe that it is right, and a "military 
necessity," to put down and silence all criti- 
cism on public measures, by suppressing and 



mobbing persons; by the arrest and imprison- 
ment of dissentients, under the law of "sus- 
pected persons." You must believe that the 
constitution is a "covenant with death" and 
the Union a "league with hell," or you are a 
"secessionist." If you believe in the "Union 
as it was, and the constitution as it is," includ- 
ing the article providing for amendments, you 
are a "copperhead." In short, if you do 
not endorse every act of the Administration, 
as just and proper, you "oppose the war," 
and ought to be sent ''over the lines." 

Such is the spirit of intolerance of that 
class of persons who have always opposed the 
Democracy — with a few honorable exceptions. 

Not so with the Democracy, for no recording 
pen of history has shown or can show that 
during the Democratic adminisiration of Mr. 
Jefferson, when we were threatened with a 
war with France, that any opponent was arrest- 
ed, and punished without "due process of law"— 
and under the Democratic administration of Mr. 
Madison, when the nation was in a death-like 
grapi^le with the most powerful nation on the 
globe — no arbitrary arrests were made — no 
newspapers suppressed — no printing offices 
mobbed — no system of provost marshals to in- 
timidate, annoy and arrest people, without 
charge or accusation — no indemnifying acts to 
shield officers guilty of striking down civil and 
personal liberty without cause — no deporta- 
tion beyond our lines. In short, none of those 
intolerant, revolutionary means were resorted 
to, although, as we have shown in these pa- 
ges, there was abundant cause for the most 
energetic and summary measures, Mr. Mad- 
ison might have arrested thous 'nds of lead- 
ing, wealthy and influential citizens of the 
Eastern States, with specific charges of 
treason and misprison of treason, and been 
content to have rested the prosecution in open 
court on their own published acts, resolves 
and speeches. 

But Mr. Madison did not do it. And here- 
in consists the great difference between the 
characteristics of the two great parties of this 
country. The present party in power — intol- 
erant and prescriptive as their Federal sires, 
have made thousands of arrests — most of 
which had not the merit of being based on 
charges, even, and none of which, so fiir as we 
have ever been able to learn, have ever been 
followed by proof that treason was either com- 
mitted or intended. Newspapers have been 



108 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



suppressed (as we shall show hereafter) for no 
greater crime than a manly protest against 
such outrages, and fair criticism on the con- 
duct of those in authority, with a view solely 
of preserving — not destroying — the Govern- 
ment of our fathers. 

THE BIGOTRY AND INTOLERAXCE OF TO-DAY 
— BORROWED FROM THE PILGRIMS. 

To show that the leaders of the present 
reigning dynasty came honestly by their hig- 
otrj', intolerance and spirit of persecution, we 
will in this connection introduce 

A CHAPTER FROM THE PURITANS. 

And before we introduce our "ancient tes- 
timony,'"' we wish to enter our protest 
against that indiscriminate denunciation 
against our Puritan fathers, which many in- 
dulge. The Mayflower brought many good, 
liberal and generous spirits as well as bad, 
illiberal, arrogant and intolerent ones. That 
early lump of emigration was leavened with a 
fair proportion of Democracy, from which 
sprang many of the leading, liberal Democrat- 
ic ideas of our age. They were the pioneers 
of those free and liberal ideas that have for the 
most part governed our people for nearly two 
centuries. 

But a large majority of the early Puritans 
were bigoted and intolerent, and to trace the 
genealogy of the illiberal and intolerent ideas 
of the present age to their proper source, we 
copy from an old work written in the latter 
part of the 17th century: 

"The Quakers were whipped, branded, had 
their ears cut off, their tongues bored with 
hot irons, and were banished upon pain of 
death, in case of their return, and actually ex- 
ecuted upon the gallows." 

At a subsequent date, says another work: 

"The Quakers prosecuted the Protestants 
with all manner of cruel atrocities," &c. 

And continues this antiquarian work: 

"The practice of selling the natives of North 
America into foreign bondage continued for 
two centuries. The articles of the early New 
England Confederacy classed persons among 
the spoils of war. A scanty remnant of the 
Pequod tribe in Connecticut, the captives 
treacherously made by AYaldron in New Hamp- 
shire, the homeless remnants of the tribe of 
Annamon, the orphan offspring of King Phil- 
lip himself, were all doomed to the same hard 
destiny of perpetual bondage." 



And again: 

"The Pokanokets were the first tribe which 
sheltered the Pilgrims after their landing on 
Plymouth Rock, and they were the first to fall 
victims to their insidious and ungrateful pol- 
icy." 

And it is further recorded iu the same his- 
tory: 

"At the two sessions of the court in Septem- 
ber, 1769, fourteen women and one man were 
sentenced to death on charges of witchcraft. 
One old man of eighty refused to plead, and 
by that horrible decree of the then common 
law, was tortured to death. Although it was 
evident that confession was the only safety, in 
most cases, some few had courage to retract 
their confessions — some eighty of them were 
sent to execution. Twenty persons had al- 
ready been put to death — eight more were un- 
der sentence; the jails were full of prisoners; 
and new accusations were made every day." 

BLUE LIGHTS AND BLUE LAWS. 

As the Puritans passed blue laws, the better 
to silence opposition to their illiberal ideas and 
dogmas, so their progeny burned blue lights to 
signal the enemy in war, and thus at times in 
our history, have rendered the cause of per- 
sonal rights and civil liberty, to say nothing of 
National existence, Hue indeed. 

Among the laws alluded to in this early his- 
tory, were the following: 

"No one shall travel, cook victuals, make 
beds, sweep house, cut hair, or shave on the 
Sabbath day. 

"If any man shall kiss his wife, or wife her 
husband, on the Lord's day, the party in fault 
shall be punished at the discretion of the court, 
or magistrate. 

"No woman shall kiss her child on the Sab- 
bath or fasting day." 

To these provisions of law, the historian ap- 
pends the following note: 

"A gentleman, after an absence of some 
months, reached home on the Sabbath, and 
meeting his wife at the door, kissed her with 
an appetite, and for his temerity in violating 
the law, the next day was arraigned before the 
court, and fined, for so palpable a breach of 
the law on the Lord's day." 

We by no means charge our opponents with 
the guilt or foibles of their early ancestors. — 
Our purpose is only to trace a proper geneal- 
ogy of that illiberal, intolerant and bigoted 
spirit that to-day would consign to the dun- 
geon all dissentients against their political 
dogmas, so that it may not be said our Abo- 
lition bigots came dishonestly by their intoler 
ance. 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK. 



109 



SEDITION LAW NUMBER TWO— THE ACT TO 
STRIKE DOWN THE HABEAS CORPUS. 

AVe have deemed it important, in the pro- 
trress of this work, as showing the revolution- 
ary spirit of those in power to place on record 
in these pages the 

''Act Relatiiifj to Habeas CoTpvs, and Eegu- 
lating Judicial rroc'xliivjs in Certain Cases," 

so that the reader may compare it with the 
aims and purposes of the Sedition Act of old, 
and to properly appreciate this Sedition Law 
No. 2, it should be read by the light of the vote 
in Congress, by which the resolution ignoring 
a despotism on the ruins of our Government 
was tabled. 

''Sec 1. Be it enacted. 8rc.. That duringthe 
present rebellion, the President of the United 
States, whenever in his judgment the public 
safety may require it, is authorized to suspend 
the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in 
any case throughout the United States, or any 
part thereof, and whenever and wherever the 
said privilege shall be suspended, as aforesaid, 
no military or other officer shall be compelled, 
in answer to any writ of habeas corpus., to re- 
turn the body of any person or persons detain- 
ed by him, by authority of the President, but 
upon a certificate, under oath of the officer 
having charge of any one so detained, that such 
a person is detained by him as a prisoner, un- 
der authority of the President, further pro- 
ceedings under the writ of habeas corpus shall 
be suspended by the Judge or court having is- 
sued the said writ, so long as said suspension 
by the President shall remain in force, and the 
said rebellion continue. 

"Sec- 2. And be it farther enacted, ^-c, That 
the Secretary of State and the Secretary of 
War be, and they are hereby directed, as soon 
as may be practicable, to furnish to the Judges 
of the Circuit and District Courts of the United 
States, and of the District of Columbia, a list 
of the names of all the persons, citizens of the 
States in which the administration of the laws 
has continued unimpaired, in the said Federal 
Courts, who are now, or may hereafter be held 
as prisoners of the United States, or order or 
authority of the President of the United 
States, or either of said Secretaries, in any 
fort,'aTsenal, or other place, as State ov polit- 
ical prisoners, or otherwise, than as prisoners 
of war, the said list to contain the names of all 
hose who reside in the respective jurisdictions 
of said Judges, or who may be deemed by the 
said Secretaries, or either of them, to have vi- 
olated any law of the United States, in any of 
said jurisdictions, and also the date of each 
arrest; the Secretary of State to furnish a list 
of such persons as are imprisoned by the order 
or authority of the President, acting through 
the State Department, and the Secretary of 
War a list of such as are imprisoned by the or- 
der or authority of the President, acting 



through the Department of V/ar. And in all 
cases where a grand jury having attended any 
of said courts, having jurisdiction in the prem- 
ises, after the passage of this act, and after 
the furnishing of said list, as aforesaid, has 
terminated its session, without finding an in- 
dictment, or presentment, or other proceeding 
against such person, it shall be the duty of 
the judge of said court forthwith to make an 
order that any such prisoner desiring a dis- 
charge from such imprisonment, be brought 
before him to be discharged, and every officer 
of the United States having custody of such 
prisoner, is hereby directed immediately to 
obey and execute said judge's order. In case 
he shall delay or refuse so to do, he shall be 
subject to indictment for a misdemeanor, and 
be punished by a fine of not less than §500, 
and imprisonment in the common jail for a pe- 
riod not less than six months, in the discretion 
of the court; Provided, however, that no per- 
vson shall be discharged by virtue of the provis- 
ions of this act, until after he or she shall 
have taken an oath of allegiance to the govern- 
ment of the United States, and to support the 
constitution thereof, and that he or she will 
not hereafter, in any way encourage or give aid 
and comfort to the present rebellion, or to the 
supporters thereof; and, provided, also, that 
the judge, or court, before whom such person 
may be brought, before discharging him or her 
from imprisonment, shall have power, on ex- 
amination of the case, and if public safety shall 
require it, shall be required to cause him or 
her to enter into recognisance, with or without 
security, in a sum to be fixed by said judge or 
court, to keep the peace and be of good be- 
havior towards the United States and its citi- 
zens, and from time to time, and at such times 
as such judge or court may direct, appear be- 
fore such judge or court, to be further dealt 
with, according to law, as the circumstances 
may require, and it shall be the duty of the 
District Attorney of the United States to at- 
tend such examination before the judge. 

"Sec. 3. Andbe it further enacted. That in 
case any of such prisoners shall be under indict- 
ment or prosecutions, for any ofl:ense against 
the laws of the United States, and by existing 
laws, bail or recognizance may be taken for the 
appearance, for trial of such person it shall be 
the duty of said judgeat once to discharge such 
person, upon bail or recognizance, for trial, as 
aforesaid, and case the said Secretaries of State 
and War shall for any reason, refuse or omit 
to furnish the said list of persons held as prison- 
ers, as aforesaid; at the time of the passage of this 
act, within twenty days thereafter, and of such 
persons as hereafter may be arrested within 
twenty days from the time of the arrest, 
any citizen may after a Grand Jury shall 
have terminated its session without find- 
ing an indictment or presentment, as provided 
in the second section of this act, by a petition, 
alleging the facts aforesaid, touching any of 
the persons, so as aforesaid imprisoned, sup- 
ported by the oath of such petitioner, or any 
other credible person, obtain and be entitled 
to have the said judge order to discharge such 



110 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



prisoner on the same terms and conditions pre- 
scribed in the second section of this act, pro- 
vided^ however, that the said judge shall be 
satisfied, such allegations are true. 

"Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That 
any order of the President or under his au- 
thority, made at any time during the existence 
of the present rebellion, shall be a defense in 
all courts to any action or prosecution, civil or 
criminal, pending or to be commenced, for any 
search, seizure, arrest or imprisonment made, 
done or committed, or acts omitted to be done, 
under, and by virtue of such order, or under 
color of any law of Congress, and such defense 
may be made by special plea, or under the gen- 
eral issue. 

"Sec. 5. And he it further enacted^ That if 
any suit or prosecution, civil or criminal, has 
been or shall be commenced in any state court 
against any officer, civil or military, or against 
any other person, for any arrest or imprison- 
ment, made, or other trespasses, or wrongs 
done or committed, or any act omitted to be 
done, at any time during the present rebellion, 
by virtue or under color of any authority de- 
rived from, or exercised by, under the Presi- 
dent of the United States, or any act of Con- 
gress, and the defendant shall at the time of 
entering his appearance in such court, or if 
such appearance shall have been entered, be- 
fore the passage of this act, then at the next 
session of the court, in which such suit or 
prosecution is pending, file a petition, stating 
the facts, and verified by affidavit for the re- 
moval of the cause for trial at the next Circuit 
Court of the United States to be holden in the 
district where the suit is pending, and offer 
good and sufficient surety for his filing in such 
court, on the first day of its session, copies of 
such process and other proceedings against 
him, and also for his appearing in such court, 
in entering special bail in the cause, if special 
bail was originally required therein, it shall then 
be the duty of the state court to accept the 
surety, and proceed no further in the cause or 
prosecution, and the bail that shall have been 
originally taken, shall be discharged, and such 
copies being filed, as aforesaid in such com-t of 
the United States, the cause shall proceed 
therein, in the same manner as if it had been 
brought in said court hy original process, what- 
ever may be the amount in dispute, or the 
damages claimed, or whatever the citizenship 
of the parties, any former law to the contrary 
notwithstanding. And any attachment of the 
goods or estate of the defendant, by the origi- 
nal process, shall hold the goods or estate of 
the defendant, so attached, to answer the 
final judgment, in the same manner as by 
the laws of such state they would have been 
holden to answer final judgment, had it been 
rendered in the court in which the suit or 
prosecution was commenced. And it shall be 
lawful in any such action or prosecution which 
may be now pending or hereafter commenced, 
before any state court whatever, for any cause 
aforesaid, after final judgment, for either par- 
ty to remove and transfer, by appeal, such 
case during the session sr term of said court, | 



at which the same shall have taken place, from 
such court to the next Circuit Court of the 
United States, to be held in the district in 
which such appeal shall be taken, in manner 
aforesaid. And it shall be the duty of the 
person taking such appeal, to produce and file 
in the said Circuit Court attested copies of the 
process, proceedings and judgment in such 
cause, and it shall also be competent, for either 
party, within six months after the rendition of 
a judgment in any such cause, by writ of 
error or other process, to remove the same to 
the Circuit Court of the United States of that 
district in which such j udgment shall have been 
rendered, and the said Circuit Court shall 
thereupon proceed to try and determine the 
facts and the law in such action, in the same 
manner as if the same had been there origi- 
nally commenced, the judgment in such case 
notwithstanding. And any bail which may 
have been taken, or property attached, shall be 
holden on the final judgment of the said Cir- 
cuit Court in such action, in the same manner 
as if no such removal and transfer had been 
made as aforesaid. And the state court from 
which any suoh action, civil, or criminal, may 
be removed and transferred as afore- 
said, upon the parties giving good and suffi- 
cient security for the prosecution thereof, shall 
allow the same to be removed and transferred, 
and proceed no further in the case: Provided, 
however that if the party aforesaid shall fail 
duly to enter the removal and transfer, as 
aforesaid, in the Circuit Court of the United 
States, agreeably to this act. the state court by 
which judgment shall have been rendered, and 
from which the transfer and removal shall have 
been made, as aforesaid, shall be authorized, 
on motion for that purpose, to issue execution, 
and to carry into eflFect any such judgment, 
the same as if no such removal and trans- 
fer had been made: And Provided also, 
that no such appeal or writ of error shall be 
allowed in any criminal action or prosecution 
where final judgment shall have been rendered 
in favor of the defendant or respondent, by the 
state court. And if in any suit hereafter com- 
menced, the plaintiff is nonsuited or judgment 
pass against him, the defendant shall recover 
double costs. 

"Sec. 6, And be it further enacted. That any 
suit or prosecution described in this act in 
which final judgment may be rendered in the 
Circuit Court, may be carried by writ oi error 
to the Supreme Court, whatever may be the 
amount of said judgment. 

"Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, Thatno 
suit or prosecution, civil or criminal, shall be 
maintained for any arrest or imprisonment 
made, or other tresspasses or wrongs done or 
committed, or act omitted to be done, at any 
time during the present rebellion, by virtue or 
under color of any authority derived from, or 
exercised by, or under the President of the 
United States, or by or under any act of Con- 
gress, unless the same shall have been com- 
menced within two years next after such arrest, 
imprisonment, trespass, or wrong may have 
been done or committed, or act may have been 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



Ill 



omitted to be done! Provided, That in no case 
shall the limitation herein provided commence 
to run until the passage of this act, so that no 
party shall, by virtue af this act, be debarred 
of his remedy by suit or prosecution, until two 
years from and after the passage of this act." 

VOTE ON THE PASSAGE OF SAID BILL. 

The above act passed the House of Repre- 
sentatives, March 3d, 1863. We annex the list 
of yeas and nays so that the reader may see 
who "did this thing," and to what political 
faith they belong. 



Altlrich, K. 
Arnold, Ji. 
Ashley, 11. 
Babbitt, 11. 
Baker, R. 
Baxter, K . 
Beaman, II. 
Biglow, R. 
Blair, (Va.)U. 
Blair, (Pa.) R. 
Blake, R. 
Browne, (Va.) U. 
Buffington, R. 
Campbell, R 
Casey, U. 
Chamberlain, R. 
Clark, R, 
Colfax, R. 
Conklin, F. A., 
Conklin, R., R 
Conway, R . 
Cutler, R , 
Davis, R. 
Dawes, R. 
Delano. R . 
Dunn, R. 
Edgerton, R. 
Elliott, R . 
Ely, R. 
Fenton, R. 



Fisher, R. 
Frauchet, R. 
Frank, R. 
Gordin, R. 
Gurley, R. 
Hahn, U. 
Hale, U. 
Harrison, R. 
Hooper, R. 
Horton, R. 
llutchins, R. 
Julian, R. 
Kelley, R. 
Kellogg, (Mich.) 
Kellogg-, (111.) R. 
Killings, R. 
Lansing, R. 
Lary, U. 
R. Lehman, D. 
Loomis, R. 
Low, R. 
Mclndoe, R. 
McKean, R. 
McKnight, R. 
McPherson, R. 
Marstou, R. 
IMaynard, U. 
Mitchell, R. 
Moorehcad, R. 
Morill, (Me.) R. 



Fessenden, S. C, R.Nixon, R. 
Fessenden.TAF. RPatton, R. 
Flanders, U. Phelps, (Cal.) R 

Ayes 100; all anti-Democratic but 



Pike, R. 
Pomeroy, R. 
Porter, R. 

Rice, (Me.) R. 
Riddle, R. 
Rollins. (N. 11.) R. 
Sargeaiit, R. 
Sedgwicli, R. 
Segar, R, 
Shanks, R. 
Shellaburger, R. 
Sherman, R. 
Sloan, R. 
R.Spaulding, R. 
Stevens, R. 
Strattou, R. 
Thomas, (M.L) U. 
Trimble, R. 
Trowbridge, R. 
Van Horn, R . 
Van Valkenburg, R 
Van Wyck, R. 
Verree, R. 
Walker, R. 
Wall, R. 
Walace, R. 
Washburne, 
Wheeler, R. 
White, (lud.) R. 
Wilmer, R. 
Windham, R. 
Worcester, R. 



R. 



NATS . 



Allen, (0.) D. 
Allen, (111.) D. 
Anacona, D. 
Biddle, D. 
Calvert, D. 
Cravens, D. 
Cnsfield, D. 
Delaplaine, D. 
Dunlap, U. 
English, D. 
Granger, D. 
Grider, U. 
Hall, D. 
Harding, D. 
Holman, D. 

Nays 4S — > 



Johnson, D. Shiel, D. 

Karrigan, D. Smith, R. 

Knapp, D. Steele, D. N. D. 

Law, D. Steele, (N. J.) D. 

Mallory, U. Stiles, D. 

May, D. Thomas, (Mass.) U. 

Menzies, U. Vallandigham, D. 

Morris, D. Voorhees, D. 

Noble, D. Wadsworth,D. 

Norton, D. Ward, D. 

Nugin.D. White, (0.) D. 

Pendleton, D. Wicklifie, U. 

Perry, D. Wood, D. 

Price, D. Woodruff, D . 

Robinson, D. Yeaman, D. 

only one Republican. 
As the foregoing act established a Dictator- 
ship over the people so far as it was piossible 
for Congress to do it, we are anxious the men 
of the future shall see who is responsible. 

"anythinq but that." 

The New ^ork T^rjAwne having been taken to 
task by a "conservative" Republican paper for 
its treasonable purposes, that sheet retorts as 



follows, which shows that its politics out- 
weighs its "love" for the Union. 

"A journal which seeks occasion to differ 
with the Tiihune, asserts that after having 
been willing to 'let the cotton states go,' we 
have oj^posed every proposition looking to 
peace. This is astonishingly wide of the truth. 
The one thing that we Aat'e steadfastly opposed 
— that we have deemed too dear n price, even 
for peace — is new concessions — new guarantees 
to human slavery. Take any form but that. 

* * * Let us have a Union of peace as 
soon as possible, but never by new concessions 
to, new compromises with, slavery." 

WITHOUT NEGRO EQUALITY THE UNION OF NO 
ACCOUNT. 

The Chicago Journal uses the following in- 
genious argument to prove that the President 
is not in favor of the "Union as it was:"" 

"All a Mistake. — The Chicago Trilune 
complains with some bitterness of an express- 
ion in the President's letter to Horace Gree- 
ley, wjiich quotes as follows: 'The sooner the 
National authority is restored the sooner the 
Union will be the Union as it wns/' [The 
?7a/«c« are not ours.] The Tribune's ground of 
comrlaint is, that the President seems to look 
to restoring the old order of things, just as it 
existed immediately preceding the rebellion. 
Such would be the inference if the President 
had used the language imputed to him, but the 
Tribune has misquoted. The language of the 
President, as we tind it published in the Na- 
tional Intelligencer, the nnquestionably correct 
version is as follows: 'The sooner the Nation- 
al authority can be restored, the nearer the 
Union will be the Union as it was.' This con- 
tains a different idea from that contained in the 
sentence quoted by the Tribune. It shows the 
President does not expect the old order of 
things will be restored." &c. 

And we may add, his subsequent action 
proves that the Journal via.s correct: 

A "loyal" appeal for DISSOLUTION. 

From a speech by Wendell Phillips, at 
an Emancipation Anniversary meeting, in Ab- 
ington, Mass., Aug. 1, 1862, we select the fol- 
lowing, which was applauded to the echo by the 
large crowd of Republicans present: 

"AVe shall never have peace until slavery is 
destroyed. As long as you keep the present 
turtle [Lincoln] at the head of the Government 
you make a pit with one hand and fill it with 
the other. * * * * If any man present 
believes he has light enough to allow him, let 
him pray that Davis may be permitted to make 
an attack on AVashington City within a week. 
* * * The speaker knew Mr. Lincoln. He 
had, while in Washington, taken his measure. 
He is a first rate second rate man. That is all. 
A mere convenience, and he is honestly wait- 



112 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTiS. 



ing, like any other brooia stick, for the people 
to take hold of him and sweep slavery out of 
the nation. Democracy is lifting up its fangs, 
and another Congress will not have the same 
amount of Republican and honest sentiment in 
it that the last kad. Nothing less than a bap- 
tism of blood, to cry in anguish for a corporate, 
idea, that the head of the army can save us. — 
Lincoln is as good as the people of the North 
•want him. In years gone by in yonder grove 
the Whigs fired cannons to smother the voices 
from the ttxud then occupied by the speaker, 
[Phillips,] and what is the result? The 
sons of those Whigs now fill graves in Chlcka- 
hominy swamps. Let this Union be dissolved, 
in God's name, and the corner stone of a new 
one be laid, in which shall be organized forev- 
er equality in a political sense for every man 
who is born into the world!" 



CHAPTER XX. 

DISLOYALTY OF REPUBLICANS— THE GllEAT 
ROUND-HEAD CONSPIRACY. ^ 

Threat,-i to Force Mr. Lincoln to Is.^ue the Proclami>tion... 
From "New York InJepemlont "...'• Chicago Tribune "' 
Against the "Union as It Was"; also, its Threat to 
use Baj'onets in Defiance of the People. ..The Radical 
Conspiracy of 1862.. .Disclosures of the Round-Head 
Plot...Suggestion8of the " Boston Courier"; also, from 
an Albany Paper. ..The "St. Louis Anzeiger" Reveals 
the Plot. .".The "N. Y. Obseryer " Gives a Clue to It... 
Gov. Ramsey, of Minnesota, on " Machinations of Home 

Governments," Ac "Legalized Treason" From 

"Boston Courier "...The Second Hartford Convention 
Toasted. ..Chas, Sumner Teaches Revolution. ..Mr. Sew- 
ard Boasts of More Despotic Power than the Queen of 
England dare Exercise. ..Thad. Stevens declares the Con- 
stitution an " Absurdity "...Repul'licans Cheering for 

Dissolution Republicans for " Extermination and 

Damnation "...The " Boston Commonwealth " Denoun- 
ces Restoration (i Crime. ..The " South Not Worth a 
Copper"... "Boston Commonwealth" Curves the "Union 
as It Was "...Bingham Don't Want the Cotton States... 
The Constitution Committed to the Flames by Garrison 
Senator Henkle and Vallandigham... Destruction of the 
Constitution a Test of Loyalty. ..God and the Nc;{ro... 
Beecher Declares that the Negro is our "Forlorn Hope" 
Republican I!loodthirstines8...Jim Lane would send all 
the White Men to " Hell". .."Chicago Tribune" Down 
on the " Union as It Was "...Amalgamation and Negro 
Equality. ..Fred. Douglas and White Women. ..Wendell 
Phillips Thanks God for Defeat..." N. Y. Tribune" De- 
fies the National Government — Ben. Wade on Dissolu- 
tion. ..The Seceding States follow Ben.'s Advice. ..C. 
M. Clay "Spots the Union as It Was "...Beecher Ridi- 
cules the "Sheepskin Parchment "...Daniel Webster 
on the "Grasp of Executive Power "..."Democrats 
Must Not Clamor for the Union as It Was "...Moulding 
Public Opinion. ..Mr. Lincoln in 1854. ..Mr. Seward and 
Violence. ..Mr. Seward on the " Last Stage of Conflict" 
...Mr. Seward's Justification for Disunion. ..The Prefix 
" National " Stricken from the Republican Cognomen... 
Banks Predicts a Military Government. ..Carl Schurz on 
Revolution....!. P. Hale on Dissolution. ..Gen. Butler on 
Reconstruction. ..Object and Consequences of Slavery 
Agitation. ..Prophesies of Eli Thayer. ..Geueral Conclu- 
sions, &c. 

A THREAT TO DISPLACE THi; TRESIDENT. 

In the New York Indc]}ende?it of August 9, 
1862, under the head of "A Leader for the 
People," we find the following, with much 
more of the same import, too lengthy for in- 



sertion here. The paragraphs here quoted, in- 
dicate as strong as language can, the purpose 
of the Radicals to depose Mr. Lincoln by 
force, unless he yielded to their demands, and 
issued the Proclamation, and it is but charity 
to suppose that these and kindred threats, from 
kindred sources, forced him to reconsider his 
firm resolve on that subject: 

"Let any one compare the State papers, 
messages, proclamations and orders that have 
issued from this Administration during the 
past year and a half, with the documents which 
preceded and accompanied our own war of In- 
dependence. The Bills of Rights of the colo- 
nies sparkle with sentiments of humanity, of 
right, of liberty, The resolves of the old col- 
onial legislatures had in them that which fed 
the deep love of liberty in the human soul. 
The remonstrances addressed to the throne — 
the letters of eminent men — the declarations 
of Congress — were all aglow with a divine en- 
thusiasm. 

"Compare with these the papers that have 
issued from our Government, during this in- 
fernal revolt of slave bred men against free 
institMtions — thct/ are cold, heartless^ dead. 
* * * There has not been a line in any 
government paper that miyht not have been is- 
sued bu the Czar, by Louis Napoleon^ or by 
Jeff Davis. 

"Our State papers during this eventful pe- 
riod are void of genuine enthusinsm, for the 
great doctrines on which this government was 
founded. Faith in human rights is dead in 
Washington. The Administration have faith 
in America, in the United State.?, in a united 
North, in a liepublicayi j>artg, but no faith in 
that invisible principle which underlies and 
nourishes them. The people are never called 
to maintain their historic ideas. The nation 
is never reminded of its political truths. The 
people not marched where their enthusiasm, 
like the sleeping music of the harp strings, 
lies waiting some touch to bring it forth, to roll 
over this continent such an anthem as the 
world never heard, and only a free people can J| 
chant. Let one of those grand old documents ■ 
be brought forth which our fathers issued be- 
fore this infernal slavery had made man timid 
of their best faith, and tolerant only of the 
doctrine of devils. Behold its lofty spirit. 
See how divine in its inclusion of the whole 
human family in the right claimed by its au- 
thors for themselves. How bold, wise, feai-less 
and consistent! 

"Now lay down by its side the pale, cold, 
lifeless documents that have come forth from 
the Government of the great people striving 
for their liberties, and for the very land be- 
queathed them by their fathers. Why, their 
State papers of our time are the winding sheets 
of the old ones — the very shrouds in which to 
bury the noble lines and sentences of the fa- 
thers out of sight of generations whom slavery 
has missled, or whom a false prudence has in- 
timidated. * * But we must cease looking 



^ 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



113 



any more to Government^ we must turn to 
OURSELVES. A time may he near when the 
people will be called to act with prudence [how 
cautious the sentence] and courage beyond all 
precedent. After strength has been frittered 
away in wooing the manhood of Border State 
eunuchs, and reverses have come, and our rul- 
ers are fugitives from the proud capital.— 
Should they deem the task of maiiataining the 
sanctity and integrity of the national soil 
hopeless, then this great people, running 
through all their States, may yet be called to 
take up the dispairing work, and carry it to 
lictoru! 

"The people must have leaders. As yet they 
have not found them." 

" THE UNION AS IT OUGHT TO BE." 

The Chicago Tribune thus scorns the idea of 
the Union as it was: 

"In his letter to Horace Greeley the Presi- 
dent says: 

"'The Sooner the uatiimiil authority is rcstoreri, the 
sooner will be the Union as it was.' 

"There is much ambiguity in this expression. 
The 'Union as it was,' is a cant phrase, invent- 
ed by the famous Vallandigham, and fathered 
by his dirty tool, Dick Richardson. The mean- 
ing they attach to these words is well under- 
stood. But such a Union loyal men do not 
want to seerestored. They prefer a Union as it 
ought to be."' 

B.WOXETS TO DEFY THE PEOPLE. 

In ihe Chicago Tribune of Sept. 17, 1862. we 
find the following: 

"Let it be understood that the people have 
become lukewarm in the cause [abolition of 
slavery] in which they are contending, and we 
shall straightway behold them [the soldiers] 
asserting their principles in defiance of the peo- 
ple. The bayonets think. The bayonets in 
the American army bristle with ideas." 

Tlli: K.\DIC.\L CONSPIRACY OF ]8(52. 
It is well known, that following in the lead 
of the Hartford Conventionists of 1814, several 
of the New England Governors, in defiance of 
the spirit of the Constitution, which forbids the 
states to enter into any alliance, and what 
states cannot do the Governor.^ of the states 
cannot rightfully undertake, met at Providence, 
R. I., in secret, and finally adjourned to anoth- 
er secret meeting at Altoona, Pa. All this was 
done in the summer of 1862, while the radicals 
were attempting to browbeat Mr. Lincoln into 
issuing the proclamation — when he complained 
, of the "terrible pressure" upon him. And it 
will go down among the legends of his- 
tory, if even it does not yet appear in bold re- 
lief, that those most "Loyal Governors" con- 



spired together with a view to pledge them- 
selves to furnish no more troops for the war 
unless the President yielded to their demands. 

Whatever the object of their meetings, true 
loyalty did not require secrecy. The old Hart- 
ford Convention sat with closed doors, and in- 
tended to keep their aims and purposes secret, 
but they were at last subjected to the fiery 
crucible of history, and exhibited in all the 
infamy of a treasonable attempt to dissolve the 
Union. 

Let us trace the conspiracy of 1862 to its 
logical conclusions, and make up our verdict 
from the budget of facts before us. 

The following telegraphic dispatch, issued 
from the very headquarters of the Government 
just about the time the President was compell- 
ed to yield to the radical policy, and who knows 
that it was not furnished to the press by his 
order, as a justification of the course he did 
pursue? At all events, take the whole affair, 
link by link, and does it not show we had the 
Hartford Convention revised? 

'■•The Roundhead Conspiracy — Startling Devel- 
opments — Conspiracy of the Radicals to De- 
pose the President. 

•'W.isiii.NGTON, Sept. l(j, 1SG2. 
"Most astounding disclosures have been 
made here to day, by letters and verbal com- 
munications, from prominet politicians, show- 
ing that a vast conspiracy has been set on foot 
by the radicals of the Fremont fiiction to de- 
pose the present administratior, and place 
Fremont at the hwid of a provisional govern- 
ment; in other words, to make him military 
dictator. One of these letters asserts that one 
feature of this conspiracy is the proposed meet- 
ing of the governors of the northern states to 
request President Lincoln to resign, to enable 
them to carry out their scheme. The writer, 
in conclusion, says Governor Andrew and 
Senator Wilson are at work, and they are 
probably at the bottom of the movement. — 
From other well informed sources it is learned 
that the fifty thousand independent volunteers 
proposed to be raised under the auspices of the 
New York National Union Defence Committee 
were intended to be a nucleus for the organi- 
zation of the Fremont conspiracy. It was the 
purpose of those engaged in this movement t® 
have this force armed and organized by the 
government, and placed under the independent 
command of tneir chosen leader, and then to 
call upon all sympathizers to unite with them 
in arms to overthrow the present administra- 
tion, and establish in its stead a military dic- 
tatorship, to carry on the peculiar policy they 
desire the government should execute. Fail- 
ing in this, it is stated that a secret organiza- 
tion had been inaugurated, the members of 
which are known by the name of Roundheads. 



114 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



It is intended that this organization shal 
number two hundred thousand men in arms, 
who shall raise the standard of the conspira- 
tors, and call General Fremont to the com- 
mand. They expect to be joined by two-thirds 
of the army of the Union now in the field, and 
that eventually one million of armed men will 
be gathered around their standard This 
startling disclosure is vouched for by men of 
high repute in New York and other northern 
states. It is the last card of those who have 
been vainly attempting to drive the President 
into the adoption of their own peculiar policy." 

The following, from the Boston Courier^ 
also sheds some light, and offers some valuable 
suggestions on the subject: 

'■'■The F emont Conspiract; — Scheme of the 
New York Jacobins to Depose President 
Lincoln. 

"If we published our paper in the city of New 
York, we should be disposed to press the affair 
®f the war committee to all its legitimate re- 
sults. The ill-tempered letter of Mayor Op- 
dyke, the chairman, to Messrs. Belmont, shows 
the spirit of the committee, but ought they not 
to be specifically inquired of,as to certain points 
demanding explanation? For example, might 
it not well be asked of this committee: 

"1. In what manner did you intend to em- 
ploy the 50,000 men which you proposed to 
raise by the authority of the state government, 
in case the general government refused to al- 
low of such a formidable military organization 
under command of Gen. Fremont? 

"2. For what purpose did a deputation of 
your committee attend a conference of New 
England Governors at Providence? 

"3. What was the report which they brought 
back and made to you, after that conference? 

"4. Was it not proposed that the army of 
50,000 men, which you designed to raise in 
New York should be reinforced by such re- 
cruits as you might be able to obtain in New 
England? And was not this proposition con- 
sidered and discussed at the conference in 
question? 

"5. If your object was solely and legitimate- 
ly to aid the government in the suppression of 
the rebellion, why did you seek to raise a sop 
arate military force without its authority, and 
if such authority were refused, so to raise it 
necessarily against its authority? 

"6. Do you think that this proceeding could 
be regarded as encouraging enlistments — or, 
was it not rather the most direct possible dis- 
couragement, by attempting to raise a large 
force, not for the service of the government,but 
aside from it? 

"7. What was the specific object of raising 
that military force? Explain, if you please, 
how it could be employed in any legitimate way? 

' '8. Why have the sessions of your committee 
been secret? We do not ask why you may have 
excluded reporters for the press, or the public 
generally, while you were engaged in the trans- 
action of committee business — but why is the 



business of a National War Committee so con- 
ducted, that absolute exclusion of the public 
from all knowledge of the character of its do- 
ings is deemed necessary? 

' '9. Has it occurred to you that the suspicions 
of the public might justly be roused, lest 
transactions of which so much has been re- 
vealed, combined with the fact of this extraor- 
dinary privacy, might be inconsistent with the 
public peace and safety? 

"10. Has any suggestion been made in your 
committee, as to a government at the north, 
separate from that of Ihe United States? We 
do not ask you whether you have formally re- 
solved to secede, in a certain contingency, but 
wheter that subject has been discussed in your 
committee — whether it was not discussed at the 
Providence meeting before referred to — wheth- 
er your sub-committee did not make a report 
on this particular subject — and if not, what 
object it actually was which you wished to raise 
an army for? 

"11. When you proposed to place the army 
you thought of raising under the command of 
Fremont, did you have iu mind the following 
language attributed to him, as was used by 
him while in the service of the United States 
iu Missouri? 

"That the people were in the field, and he was at their 
head, and would have done everything according to their 
expectations fnim him; that now we have only extracon- 
stitctional government — no civil rights, so to speak— all 
ordinary peaceful rules were to be set aside, and this thing 
of red tape must give way very shortly to what the people 
require of him; that he meant to carry out such measures 
as they, the people, expected him to carry out, without re- 
gard to the red tape of the Washington people."' 

"12. Are you not aware that large numbers 
of persons, disaifected as to the policy of the i 
national government, and with whom you have 
been in political association, are providing 
themselves with arms in the state of New York 
and in the New England states?'' — Boston 
Courier. 

'■'■The New York '■National War Committee.'' 

"The Jacobin club is not, however, idle, al- 
though exposed and denounced. Its agents 
are busily engaged in gathering up secretly the 
names of all who are willing to enrol them- 
selves in the army of 50,000 men, to be placed 
under the command of Fremont. It is a repe- 
tition of the Wide Awake clubs of 1860, with 
this difference, that the Jacobin force will be 
supplied with arms, which they would not prob- 
ably have the courage to use. 

"There is every reason to fear that this bold 
usurpation is of wider extent than has been 
supposed. In every city or county of this state 
there is good reason to believe, similar secret 
bodies are in existence, with the object of sys- 
tematically organizing a force that may be 
used, if the necessity should arise to usurp the 
power of the government." — Albany paper. 

The following from the Saint Louis Anzieger 
(Rep.) gives us still further evidence of the 
means to be employed: 

"Programme of the Revolution. — We 
directed attention yesterday to the approach- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-B 



0/ 



115 



ing convention of the AVestern Governors, who, 
as we learn, in conjunction ■with some Eastern 
governors intend to put an ultimatum to Pres- 
ident Lincoln, and in case of a refusal, with- 
draw their quota of the troops. 

"Accordins: to the report communicated to us, 
this programme will contain the following 
points: 

"1. Immediate and general emancipation of 
the slaves. [Which was acceded to.] 

"2. Dismissal of the Cabinet and formation 
of a new one from the ranks of the radicals. 

"3. Discharge of McClellan and all Demo- 
cratic Generals [This was acceded to.] 

•'4. Transfer of the chief command of the 
entire army to Gen. Fremont. Besides, some 
other demands of a like character. 

"Governors Curtin, Tod, of Ohio, Pierpont, 
of Virginia, and Morton, of Indiana, have de- 
clared themselves against this revolutionary 
proceeding, and invited the AVestern Governors 
to a conference on the 24th, in Pennsylvania. 
For the present, preliminary consultations are 
held at Springfield, Illinois, and the project of 
a revolution, with the removal of Lincoln from 
the Presidency and the dismissal of his Cabi- 
net, is openly discussed. Unless further deci- 
sive victories of General McClellaa stifle the 
project in its birth, we shall soon see the doors 
open to anarchy, and then woe to the Germans! 
They will oe made the scapegoat,who will have 
to suffer for every thing.' ^ 

31ore of the Conspirators in Neiv York. 

The New York Observer., a religious sectari- 
an organ, says : 

"AVe speak what we know when we say that 
a calm, scholarly minister of Christ in this 
city declared in the house of God, four days 
ago, that we shall have ho success in this war 
until the President is driven out of AVashing- 
ton, and three of his Cabinet are executed. — 
This is the revolutionary spirit that is abroad, 
and the foundations of government and law 
and society are trembling at its breath. 

Here, then, are numerous links, well put to- 
gether, and forming a chain of almost irresist- 
able evidence. But they are not all. Just 
leave New Englend abolitionism for a moment 
alone in its glory, and turn our attention to 
evidences of the guilt in the AVest. The Exe- 
cutive convention at Cleveland worked in har- 
mony with the New York and New England 
move. Simultaneously all the AVestern Legis- 
latures were called together, with no visible 
necessity for the trouble and expense. They 
all urged substantially the same measures, 
which were, that the soldiers should be privil- 
edged to vote, and that the States should arm 
and equip themselves, like independent war 
powers. Gov. Ramsey, of Minnesota, thus al- 
luded to the voting question: 



"It may happen, that unless proper legisla- 
tive action is taken to prevent it, a day will 
come when our vast force of volunteers in the 
field will represent one set of principles, while 
our ffovernmeni, state andnationul. will be con- 
trolled by an entirely different set; in other 
words, the labors and sufferings of a patriotic 
army may be frustrated, embarrassed and 
brought to nought by the machinations of home 
governments., wielded by timid or disloi/al spir- 
its. No mind can estimate the horrors to which 
such a state of things would lead. It would be 
armed right contending against legalized treas- 
on, and its fruit would be a condition of fear- 
ful anarchy.'' 

The Chicago Tribune of the 17th, said upon 
the same topic: 

"Let it be understood that the people have 
become lukewarm in the cause for which they 
are contending, and we shall straightway be- 
hold them (the soldiers) asserting their prin- 
ciples in defiance of the people!^'' 

Here, then, it was directly announced, that 
any opposition to the wishes of the people (and 
the radicals claimed to be the people) on the 
part of the AVashington Government would be 
"legalized treason," and the leading organ of 
that faction declared the soldiers may find it 
necessary to assert their principles (here used 
in the sense of the principles of the radicals) 
'■'■in defiance of the people." 

THE ALTOONA MEETING 

fFrom the Boston Courier, Sept. 27. J 
"The further report of the Herald's Altoona, 
correspondent is entirely confirmatory of the 
first one, and there is every reason to believe 
it is substantially correct. The attempt to 
cover up the proceedings, or to conceal the de- 
signs of the active conspirators, must inevita- 
bly fail. The article of the Louisville Journal 
on the subject is impressive, and will command 
attention and respect. The country has great 
cause to be thankful that Governor Bradford, 
of Maryland, set down in some accounts as a 
"war democrat," but who has always been a 
AVhig, and acted with the Bell and Everett 
party at the last election, was present. His 
true loyalty and spirit were of main service at 
the meeting; and the action of Gov. Tod, of 
Ohio, and Gov. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, in 
concert with him, turned the tide of faction 
and conspiracy. 

"Undoubtedly we shall have further devel- 
opments forthwith, especially as to the per- 
sistent malice of Governor Andrew and those 
who concurred with him in the silly and mal- 
ignant attempt to press for the removal of 
McClellan. But he is now out of their reach, 
and they will suffer the usual consequence of 
biting files. Under the recent supplementary 
proclamation of the President, these men 
could be handily arrested at AVashington, 
whither they are said to have repaired; for 
their conduct in hostility to the commanding 



116 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



general is, of all things, directly to discourage 
enlistments and to be guilty of disloyal prac- 
tices, affording aid and comfort to the rebels, 
■who would like nothing better than to have 
McClellan removed. Our own Governor, in- 
deed, can be proved to have declared in New 
York a few days ago that the government 
should not have a man from Massachusetts 
until the change in the command of the army 
was effected. 

The H.rald^s correspondent, who was on the 
spot, informs us that these "Loyal Governors" 
were in session till half past one o^ clock at 
night, and that after the telegraph had inform- 
ed them the President had yielded, they open- 
ed their batteries on Gen. McClellan — made 
it a part- of their programme that he should be 
removed, and adjourned for Washington in a 
body, where, no doubt, they received the as- 
surance from headquarters, that as soon as it 
would look well their wishes should be grati- 
fied. 

This meeting of twelve Governori of twelve 
states, at such a time, and such an hour, for 
such purposes, is without a parallel in the an- 
nals of traitorous conspiracies. Even the 
traitorous Federal Governors of 1814, dared 
not undertake so bold a job in their executive 
capacities and the Hartford Convention was 
composed of a set of lay delegates. We re- 
linquish this subject with the melancholy re- 
gret that we have men high in office that would 
combine in a move to coerce the executive of 
the nation into any measure, and that we have 
a Natienal Executive that would yield to such 
a pressure. The precedent is one pregnant 
with unalloyed danger to our Government, and 
all true patriots will regret that we had not one 
in the Presidential chair who would meet all 
such forestalling efforts with the reply: 

"By the Eternal, I run this machine — dis- 
perse to your homes, or I will hang you 
on the first tree as plotters of treason!" 

EEVOLUTIONART SPIRIT TAUQIIT BY CHARLES 
SUMNER. 

On the 7th of September, 1854, at Worces- 
ter, Mass., Charles SujiNER made a speech 
on the birthday of the Republican party in that 
state. Then and there the party was christ- 
ened, and Mr. Sumner in leading it to its bap- 
tismal fount, portrayed the objects of its birth, 
and prophesied of its future career, as the 
Moses in the Abolition bull rushes: 

"The whole dogmn of passive obedience must 
berejected. In whatever guise it may assume, 
and under whatever alias it may skulk — wheth- 



er in the tyrannical usurpations of king, par- 
liament, or judicial tribunal — whether in the 
exploded theories of Sir Robert Filmer, or the 
rampant assumptions of the partizans of the 
Fugitive Slave bill. The rights of the civil 
power are limited. There are things beyond 
its province. There are matters out of its 
control. There are cases in which the /ajVA/wZ 
citizen may say — &je.,7nu3t say, Iwill not obey?'' 

And again: 

"I desire to say that no party which calls it- 
self National^ according to the common accep- 
tance of the word, which leans upon a slave 
holding wing (cheers), or is in combination 
with slave holders (cheers) can at this time, be 
true to Massachusetts (Great applause), and the 
reason is obvious. It can be presented so as 
to cleave the most common understanding. The 
essential element of such a party, whether de- 
clared or concealed, is compromise^ but our 
duties require all constitutional opposition to 
slavery, and the slave power without compro- 
mise. * * " As Republicans, we go forth 
to encounter the oligarchy of slavery! (Great 
applause.) 

MR. SEWARD'S despotism. 

To show that Mr. Seward considers himself 
a Duke of no ordinary pretensions in a great 
Republican Despotism, we quote from his re- 
marks to the British Lord: 

"My Lord, I can touch a bell on my righ, 
hand, and order the arrest of a citizen of Ohio! 
I can touch the bell again, and order the im- 
prisonment of a citizen in New York, and no 
power on earthy but that of the President., can 
release them! Can the Queen of England, in 
her dominions, do as much?" 

No, Mr. Seward, the Queen of England 
cannot. If she attempted it her head would 
roll from the block. None but the Czar of 
Russia, the Sultan of Turkey, the Kahn of 
Tartary, the Emperor of Austria, the Presi- 
dent of the United States, and such autocrats, 
could accomplish such feats of absolute des- 
potism. 

the CONiTITUTION PRONOUNCED AN "aB- 
■ SURD.ITY." 

When the bill for dismembering Virginia 
was up for consideration, in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, Thad. Stevens thus gave vent 
to his abhorence of the constitution: 

"I will not stultify myself by supposing that 
we have any warrant in the constitution for 
this proceeding. 

"This talk of restoring the Union as it was, 
and under the constitution as it is, is one of 
the absurdities which I have heard repeated 
until I h»ave become sick of it. There are 
many things which make such an event impos- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



117 



sible. This Union nevt^r shall, with my con- 
sent, be restoredunder the constitution as it is!'' 

REPUBLICANS CHEERING FOR DISSOLUTION. 

In the Wisconsin State Journal, (Rep.) of 
September 13, 1854, we find the following: 

'^Second Edition of Little Giantism in Chi- 
cago. 

"Last Saturday, Lieutenant Governor Wil- 
lard, of Indiana, attempted to convert the po- 
litical heatkens of Chicago to the sublime doc- 
trine of Squatter Sovereignty, and force them 
into allegiance to the Prophet of the New Dis- 
pensation. 

"The people listened to his remarks half an 
hour in silence, when thinking he had made a 
decided impression, he ventured to stigmatize 
Horace Greeley as "the first man who attempt- 
ed opposition to the Nebraska Bill, and recom- 
mended a dissolution of the Union. This 
Irought out the croivd with three cheers for 
Greelei/, and three groans for Douglas ! Again, 
he turns ac<J attacks Benton, and the crowd 
answered with six cheers for Benton, and three 
groans for Douglas ! Then he attacked the 
Knov) Nothings, and this brought out three 
cheers for that party, and as usual three 
groans for Douglas !" 

This was not the first or last time the Re- 
publicans cheered for those in favor of a dis- 
solution of the Union, and for that pestiferous 
Know Nothing party. 

IIAILING EXTERMINATION AND DAMNATION. 

The "Republicans of Cadiz, Green county, 
Wisconsin, held a meeting on the 26th of 
March, 1863, and from their resolutions we 
select the following: 

'■'■ Resolved, That we will hail any policy of 
our Government, be it the Proclamation, An- 
nihilation, Extermination, Starvation, and even 
Damnation, could that form a part of its pol- 
icy," &c. 

This is "loyalty"' and piety combined. 

NULLIFICATION IN OHIO. 

When the Oberlin rescuers' case was before 
the Supreme Court of Ohio, tlv. Wolcott, 
the Republican Attorney General of that State, 
in arguing for the nullification of law, and 
trampling the Constitution under foot, used 
the following language: 

"I hesitate to refer to a single point. Yes, 
jl hear it — you hear it — everybody hears it 
isaid upon the streets, if this Court shall exer- 
'cise its unquestionable prerogative in the en- 
largement of these prisotiers, there will be a 
'conflict — a conflict between State and Federal 
authority. What then? Are we children — are 
we old women, to be frightened from our pro- 
,priety by a menace like this? I mean law, but 
not the law of King Bomba, of Naples. Or- 



der — I stand by order, but not the order which 
reigned in Warsaw, after the massacre. Peace 
is most desirable, but not the peace which 
survives liberty, and subsists under a despo- 
tism. If there is to be a conflict, let it come 
now, when I can meet it. I would leave no 
such ctfhflict as a legacy to my children." 

This false appeal to patriotism, to destroy 
our Government, and override its laws, was 
heartily endorsed by all the Republican press. 
The Milwaukee Sentinel said of Wolcott's 
appeal, "it is well expressed," 

NO restoration — 'tis a "crime." 

The President issued a proclamation ap- 
pointing a day of fasting and prayer, in which 
occurred this setence: 

"Let us then, rest humbly in the hope, au- 
thorized by the Divine teachings, that the uni- 
ted cry of the nation will be heard on high, 
and answered with blessings no less than the 
pardon of our national sins, and the restora- 
tion of our now divided and suffering country, 
to its former condition of U7iity and peace-''' 

Upon this, the Boston Commomcealth, the 
home organ of Cuarles Sumner, commented 
as follows : 

"It is cool assumption of the President that 
the pardon of our national sins has any kind of 
connection with the restoration of our country 
to 'i's former happy condition of unity and 
peace! " Our own opinion is, that if God had 
resolved not to pardon us at all, he yvowlAprove 
it ly allowing the restoration of that old 
'unity of peace.' That unity was crime; that 
peace worse than war ! " 

And the aforesaid sheet proceeds to invoke a 
curse on the President, and all who shall join 
in praying for the aforesaid "restoration," as 
follows: 

"J/ay the tongue be ivithered. ere it is an- 
swered, that prays for a restoration of that old 
state of things, from which God in His mercy 
seems willing to rescue us — than which His 
fiercest wrath could find no more terrible doom, 
for a blind nation, led by blind rulers!" 

The above is but an echo of that resolution 
passed by the Massachusetts Senate forty-nine 
years before, that it was 

"unbecoming in a moral and religious people to 
rejoice over the victories obtained by our 
arms." 

One would think that forty-nine years was a 
period long enough to bleach out the treason- 
able impiety, so ingrained in Puritanical blood, 
but it is a trite old saying that 

"What is born in the bones, rarely leaves 
the flesh." 



118 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



THE SOUTH NOT 'WORTH A COPPER. 

In 1859, the Milwaukee Free Democrat^ in a 
loiJi; article, endeavoring to educate the public 
mind to the idea that it was for the interest of 
the North to dissolve the Union, favored us 
•with the following Republican conclusion: 

'•We repeat the assertion, that the Union is 
not worth a copper to the North in any point 
of vien- ^ but is a perpetual sacrifice of both 
money and morals, [?] an assertion which we 
can make good." 

"JIO -WISH FOR RECONSTRUCTION." 

The New York Tribune, in February, 1863, 
in a long leader, had the following: 

"Speaking for ourselves, we can honestly say 
for the old Union, which was kept in existence 
by Southei-n menaces and Northern conces- 
sions, we have no regrets, and no wish for its 
reconstruction. 

'•Who wants a Union which is nothing but a 
sentiment to lacquer Fourth of luly orations^ 
withal! 

"If by change, in ancient times the criminal 
felt the loathsome corpse, which justice had 
tied upon his shoulders, slipping off, he did 
not, we fancy, cry out: '0, wretched man that 
I am! who will fasten me again to the body of 
this death?' If we are, in the Providence of 
God, to be delivered from unnatural alliances 
— if the January of slavery is no longer to 
chill by natural embraces the May of human 
hope, who is there wicked and weak enough to 
forbid the righteous divorce!'' 

The Boston Commomoealth, Sumner's or- 
gan, says: 

"How dare any man pray for the return of 
that festering wrong — that sin and shame — the 
Union as it was? It is like breaking the tables 
of the Eternal Law, and dashing them in the 
face of Jehovah!" 

Mr. Bingham, an abolition orator, while 
stumping Connecticut for the Republicans, in 
1863, said: 

"Who in the name of God wants the cotton 
States, or any other State this side of perdition, 
to remain in the Union, if slavei'y is to con- 
tinue?" 

THE CONSTITUTION COMMITTED TO THE FLAMES 

The Boston Liberator of April 24, 1863 thus 
gloried in its treason, and hatred of our Con- 
stitution: 

"No act of ours do we regard with more 
conscientious approval, or higher satisfaction 
— none do we submit more confidently to the 
tribunal of Heaven and the verdict of mankind, 
than when several years ago, on the Fourth of 
July, in the presence of a great assembly, we 
committed to the flames the Constitution of the 



United States, because (in the language of 
John Quincy Adams) — 

•' 'The bargain between freerlom and slavery was morally 
and politically vicious, inconsistent with the principles on 
which alono our revolution can be justsfied, and cruel and 
oppressive, by riveting the chains of the oppressed, and 
pledging the faith and freedom to maintain and perpetuate 
the tyranny of the master.' 

"And should the present bloody struggle end 
in any compromise with the South, or in rec- 
ognizing any constitutional obligations to slave- 
holders or slave hunters, in the border states, 
IV e shall again give that instrument to the con- 
suming fire, and renew our protest against it, 
as 'a covenant with death, an agreement with 
hell!' ******-x--x-**7r 

"In the court of conscience, and before God, 
it matters not what slaveholding agreements or 
compromises may be found in the Constitution 
or out of it, they are inhuman, unjust and im- 
moral, and therefore null and void, and if a 
man can retain office or be a voter under the 
Government only on condition of sustain- 
ing compromises, then it is certain, that 
if he would not not do evil, that good may 
come, he must relinquish office holding, and 
refuse to cast a vote stained with human blood. 
His motto is, and must be, as one loyal to right 
and duty, no Union with slaveholders." 
" ' JIan is more than constitutions — 

Better rut bene ith the sod 
Than be true to church and state, 

While we are doubli' filse to Liiid." 

Thus, we have a clue to what the opponents 
of the Democracy mean by "loyalty." It is 
the touch stone of opposition to the Constitu- 
tion. Nor need any one tell us this is but 
the ravings of an ultra Abolitionist. It is the 
cry of all who claim to be par excellence Ad- 
ministration men, not one of whom will con- 
sent to retain the Constitution as it is. 

Senator Henkle, of Springfield, Ohio, in a 
speech at Columbus, in 1863, said in speaking 
of the Constitution : 

^^I would blow it away as a child blows a 
feather into the air." 

Per contra, Mr. Vallandigiiam, in a speech 
in the same State, said: 

"lama Democrat — for the Constitution — 
for law — for the Union— for liberty." 

Mr. Henklk gets a fat oSice under the con- 
scription law since he uttered his Phillipic 
against the Constitution, while Mr. Vallan- 
DiGUAM was banished. So that it will be seen, 
it pays better under thi^ Administration to de- 
nounce the Constitution than it does to stand 
by it aa "the sheet anchor of our hope." as 
Jefferscn termed it. 

GOD and the negro. 

After having spit upon the Constitution — 
derided its founders — mocked the wisdom of its 



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119 



purposes — trampled it under foot, and commit- 
ted it to the flames, these impious forerunners 
of the "New Dispensation" tliat "is to be" set 
up the negro, as Moses did the serpent in the 
■wilderness, and expect the people are to -'look 
and live." A specimen of this impious negro 
woi-ihip we find in the New York Independent 
of January, 1863: 

"Congress is in dispute over a bill to arm 
and equip 150,000 negroes to serve in the war. 
Let it [Congress] stop the debate. The case is 
settled; the problem is solved; the argument is 
done. Let the recruiting sergeant?, beat their 
drums! The next levy of troops must not be 
made in the North, but on the plantations! 
Marshal them into line by regiments and 
brigades! Thp men that have picked cotton, 
must Udw pick flints! Gather the great third 
army. For two years the government has been 
searching in an enemy's country for a path to 
victory — only the negro can find it. Give him 
gun and bayonet, and let him point the way. 
The future is fair — God and the negro are to 
save the R<-puhlic! [The army is nowhere in 
this programme.] 

"The interval between the destruction and 
salvation of the Republic is measured by two 
steps — one is emancipation — the other military 
success. The first is taken — the other delays. 
How is it to be achieved? There is but one 
answer — by the negro. 

'■'The ?iegroes are the. final reliance of the 
Government. They are the forlorn hope of the 
Republic' They are the last safe keepers of the 
good Cause. Wemustmake alliance ivith them., 
or our final success is imperiled! " 

Thus does this religio-political apostle hold 
up the negro as our only Savior. Look to him 
and live, all ye "loyal" sons of freedom! 
Great God, what mockery! In the light of the 
civilized world, for twenty millions of white 
men, with abundance of wealth, power, intel- 
ligence, and prestige of the old government to 
back them, cowardly acknowledging their im- 
potence before eight millions of "paupers," 
and calling on the semi-savage, down-trodden 
sons of Ham to come to their relief, lest they 
perish. 

But, the Independent has an object — and that 
object is to invest the negro with undue impor- 
tance, to the end that he may have his full joo- 
litical weight in the political part of this con- 
flict. Thi? is the drama we are now playing to 
"crowded houses." It is for the benefit of po- 
litical tricksters. 

BLOODTHIRSTY VENOM OF THE "LOYALISTS." 

During the summer of 1863, according to 
the Washington Chronicle, Jim Lane, a Re- 
publican United States Senator from Kansas, 



made a speech in AVashington, in which he 
gave utterance to the following bloodthirsty 
sentiments: 

"I would like to live long enough to see 
every white man in South Carolina, in hell., 
and the negroes inheriting their territory. 
[Loud applause.] 

"It would not wound my feelings any day to 
find the dead bodies of rebel sympathizers [this 
is the term applied by the radicals to all dem- 
ocrats] pierced with bullet holes in every street 
and alley of Washington. [Applause.] Yes, 
I zvould regret this. for I would not like to wit- 
ness all this waste of powder and lead. I 
would rathor have them hung, and the ropes 
saved! Let them dangle until their stinking 
bodies rot and fall to the ground piece by piece. 
[Laughter and applause.] 

THE UNION "hated BY EVERY PATRIOT." 

The Chicago Tribune thus puts on record its 
detestation of the Constitution and Union: 

"The Union as it was will never bless the 
vision of any pro-shivery fanatic or secession 
sympathizer, and it never ought to! It is a 
thing of the past, HATED BY EVERY 
PATRIOT, and destined never to CURSE an 
honest people, or BLOT THE PAGE OF 
HISTORY AGAIN !'^ 

"Better recognize the Southern Confederacy 
at once, and stop this eff'usion of blood, than 
continue this ruinous policy, or have even a 
restoration of the Union as it was."' — Cassius 
M. Clay. 

"Conway of the Boston Commonwealth 
writes home [from England] to say that he 
'had rather have heard of a defeat at Vicks- 
burg than the declaration of Gerrit Smith, 
that the Union must be saved, even though 
slavery be saved with it.' " — Albany JuurnaL 
[Rep.) 

AMALGAMATION AND NEGRO EQUALITY. 

This is what is now aimed at by the radicals. 
Many conservative Republicans still revolt at 
the idea, but time, and the "policy" of the 
"powers" and coming events will cure them of 
that, as it has of former repungance to many 
other radical "ideas" they now swear by. In 
a speech by Wendell Phillips, in 1863, that 
"leader of this progressive age," came out 
flat-footed for amalgamation. 

Fred Douglas, whom the Tiltonians prefer 
to McClellan, for President, addressed a 
Republican meeting at Brooklyn, in 1863, on 
the subject of amalgamation, in which he said: 

"Therfe is not much prejudice against color 
now, because, in coming down Broadway, the 
other day, *I saw a white lady riding beside a 
colored man. It is true the colored man had 
a bit of tinsel around his hat, but nobody 



120 



FIVE HUxNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



seemed to notice it, and the lady did not show 
any signs of disgust. A few days since a white 
lady asked me to walk down Broadway with 
her^ and insisted on taking my arm. On walk- 
ing along, every one we met stared at us as if 
we were some curious animals. What was the 
reason the people did not stare at the coach- 
man in the same manner. Simply because he 
was a servant, and I was walking with a friend. 
By and by you will get over all this nonsense. 
(Cheers.) You ought to sec me in London, 
walking down Broadway with a white lady on 
each arm, and nobody stared at us, as if they 
thought it strange. And it leill soon be so here, 
and then we will be all the nobler and better. 
(Cheers.)" 

Wendell Phillips, at the Tremont Tem- 
ple, Boston, said: 

"Thank God, for McClellan,for Cameron- 
thank God for defeat. With aman for President, 
we should have put do,vn the Rebellion in 
ninety days, and left slavery where it ^vas.' " 

Salmon P. Chase, the present Secretary of 
the Treasury, made a speech in Ohio, August 
19, 1S54, in which he said: 

"We have rights which the Federal Govern- 
ment must not invade — rights superior to its 
power, on which our sovereignty ttepends, and 
we do mean to assert these rights against all 
tyrannical assumptions of authority." 

In 1854, in speaking of the delivering up of 
Burns, the fugitive, the New York Tribune 
said: 

"There is power enough in the anti-fugitive 
law masses of Massachusetts, when properly 
directed, to defy theivhole force of the national 
government, if that force were exerted for the 
enforcement of the statute." 

BEN. WADE willing TO LET THE SOUTH GO. 

The Hon. Benj. Wade, Republican U. S. 
Senator from Ohio, made a speech in the Sen- 
ate, December 4, 1856, in which he coined the 
following: — \_Cong. Globe,Zd Scss.Z^th Cong, 
p. 25. 

"But Southern gentleman stand hero and in 
almost all their speeches, speak of the dissolu- 
tion of the Union, as an element of every ar- 
gument, as though it were a peculiar conde- 
scension on their part that they permitted the 
Union to stand at all. If they do not feel in- 
terested in upholding the Union — if it really 
trenches on their rights — if it endangers'their 
institutions to such an extent that they cannot 
feel secure under it — if their interests are 
violently assailed by means of this Union, lam 
not one of those who expect that they will long 
continue under it. I am not one of tkose who 
would ask them to continue in such a Union. 
It would be doing violence to the platform of 
theparty to which I belong. We have adopted 
the old Declaration of Independence as the 



basis of our political movements, which de- 
clares that any people when their Government 
ceases to protect their rights — when it is so 
subverted from the true purposes of Govern- 
ment as to oppose them, have the right to re- 
cur to fundamental principles, and if need be, 
to destroy the Governraent under ivhich they live, 
and to erect on its ruins another more condu- 
sive to their welfare. I hold that they have 
this right. T will not blame any people for ex- 
ercising it, whenever they think the contin- 
gency has come. * * * You cannot for- 
cibly hold men in this Union, for the attempt 
to do so, it seems to me would subvert the first 
principles of the Government under which we 
live." 

If this be the correct doctrine, we cannot 
see what objection Mr. Senator Wade can 
have to the following response te his own doc- 
trine: 

"We, the people of South Carolina, in Con- 
vention assembled, do declare and ordain, and 
it is hereby declared and ordained, that the 
ordinance adopted by us in convention, on the 
23d day of May, A. D. 1788, whereby the Con- 
stitution of the United States of America, was 
ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of 
the General Assembly of this State ratifying 
amendments of the said Constitution, are here- 
by repealsd, and the Union now existing be- 
tween South Carolina and other States, under 
the name of the United States of America, is 
hereby dissolved" — ayes 169, noes 0. 

And if this does not satisfy the Honorable 
Senator, let us copy the Preamble to the Ala- 
bama Act of Secession, which is a perfect 
transcript of the substance of the Senator's 
remarks : 

' ' Whereas, The election of Abraham Lmcoln 
and Cannibal Hamlin to the offices of Presi- 
dent and Vice President of the United States 
of America by a eectional party, avowedly hos- 
tile to the domestic institutions, and to the 
peace and security of the people of the State 
of Alabama, following upon the heels of many 
and dangerous infractions of the Constitution 
of the United States [This is the language of 
the ordinance of secession of Wisconsin — res- 
olutions of 1859] by many of the states and 
people of the Northern section, is a political 
wrong of so insulting and menacing a charac- 
ter, as to justify the people of the State of Al- 
abama in the adoption of prompt and decided 
measures for their future peace and security, 

^^ Therefore, be it ordained,^ ^ &c. 

Now, had not South Carolina, Alabama, and 
others, a right to infer from the speech of Sen- 
ator Wade, that they would not be molested in 
their withdrawal from the Union? AVade cer- 
tainly announced the doctrine before they acted 
on it. He gave the license, based on his par- 
ty's "platform" — a license which they also 



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121 



found in Mr. Lincoln's speech in 1348 — a il- 
cense in the secession speeches, editorials, 
memorials sermons, resolves, &c.. of Massa- 
chusetts forty-nine years ago — and of Wiscon- 
sin five years ago. Still, all of these should 
not have induced the secession of the Southorn 
states. They ought to have been more politic 
than to have followed the example of the 
Northern secessionists. 

"spot the union as it was." 

■ Cassius M, Clay, a pet of the Administra- 
tion, made a speech at Brooklyn, New York, 
during the canvass in 1862, and this is the 
way he manifested his revolutionary spirit: 

"So fiir from finding fault with Abraham 
Lincoln, he rather found fault with him that 
he had not suspended the habeas corjjus — not 
by a dash of the pen, but by ropes round the 
necks of the traitors. 

"A voice — AVe'U hang them yet. 

"Mr. Clay — Yes, sir, the hanging of such 
men as Seymour and Wood would have saved 
thousands of honest lives. 

"A voice — That is so. 

"Mr. Clay — That is true philosophy. (Ap- 
plause and laughter.)"' 

Quite in keeping with this Robesperrean 
spirit from this Republican expounder, in the 
same speech : 

"It was a delusion to suppose that liberty 
could be established on this continent, when 
the President of the United States and the 
people of the United States had not the cour- 
age to do what was right. Therefore, spot not 
Gen. Boyle; spot the President of the United 
States; spot the heads of the Departments; 
spot your military chieftains; spot those who 
ivould have the Union as it toasf'^ 

IS the president the government? 

This question is thus settled by that pious 
thunderer, in Plymouth Church, the Rev. Po- 
litical Henry AVard Beeciier: 

"I know it is said that the President is not 
the government; that the Constitution is the 
government. What! a sheepskin parchment a 
government? I should think it was a very fit 
one for some men that I hear and see some- 
times. What is a government in our country? 
It is a body of living men ordained by the peo- 
ple to administer public affairs according to 
laws that are written in a constitution and in 
the statute books, and the government is the 
living men that are administering in a certain 
method the afiairs of the nation. [The ele- 
mentary writers say a govecnment is the ays- 
tem of laws by which a nation is governed — 
but then the elementary writers don't know 
much!] It is not a dry writing or a book. 
President Lincoln, his Cabinet, the heads of 

9 



the executive departments, are the govern- 
ment, and men have got to take their choice 
whether they will go against their government 
or go with them." 

The first object of tyrants who seize power, 
is to show that they do it legitimately. No 
despotism was ever erecttd over any people, 
except through a slow, yet sure process of false 
reasoning and plausible pi'etexts. Robesper- 
RiE, Danton, St. Just, and other despots, 
who figured in the French Revolution, and 
were the authors of that Reign of Tei;ror that 
caused the soil of France to drink up 
the blood of five millions of innocent vic- 
tims, pleaded their justification in pub- 
lic — in "Military Necessity" — all to pre- 
serve the "liberties of France." "iVe- 
cessiii/^^ has been the tyrant's plea the world 
over, to build despotisms on the ruins of con- 
stitutional government. 

We cannot do better, in this connection, than 
to quote the following just sentiments from 
Daniel Webster, the "Great Expounder," 
who in speaking of the value and sacrednessof 
our constitution said: 

"The contest for ages has been to rescue 
liberty from the grasp of executive power. On 
the long list of champions of human freedom, 
there is not one name dimmed by the re- 
proach of advocating the extension of Execu- 
tive authority. [Jilr. W. had evidently not 
studied Beecher.] On the contrary, the uni- 
form and steady purpose of all such champions 
has been to limit and restrain it. Through all 
the history of the contest for liberty, executive 
power has been regarded as a lion that must 
be caged. So far as being the object of en- 
lightened^ popular trust; so far as being con- 
sidered the natural protection of popular right, 
it has been dreaded as the great object of dan- 
ger. 

"Our security is our watchfulness of Execu- 
tive power. It was the construction of this 
department which was infinitely the most diffi- 
cult in the great work of erecting our govern- 
ment. To give to the Executive such power as 
should make it useful, and yet not dangerous; 
etlicient, independent, strong, and yet prevent 
it from sweeping away everything by its mili- 
tary and civil power, by the influence of pat- 
ronage and favor; this, indeed, was difficult. 
They who had the work to do saw this diffi- 
culty, and we see it If we would maintain 
our system, we should act wisely, by using 
every restraint, every guard the Constitution 
has provided — when we and those who come 
after us. have done all we can do, and all they 
can do,»it will be well for us and them, if the 
Executive, by the power of patronage and 
party, shall not prove an overmatch for all 
other branches of Government. I will not ac- 
quiesce in the reversal of the principles of all 



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FIYE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



just ideas of Government. I will not degrade 
the cliaracter of popular representation. I will 
not blindly confide, when all my experience 
admonishes to be jealous. 1 will not trust Ex- 
ecutive power, vested in a single magistrate, 
to keep the virgils of liberty. Bncreachment 
must be resisted at every step, whether the 
consequence be prejudicial or not, if there be 
an illegal exercise of power, it must be resist- 
ed in the proper manner We are not to wait 
till great mischief comes; till the Government 
is overthrown, or liberty itself put in extreme 
jeopardy. We would be unworthy sons of our 
fathers were we so to regard questions affect- 
ing freedom." 

In 1862 the Racine (Wis.) Journal^ in an 
article looking to the '"new order of things," 
said: 

"Let the main disposition be to aid the army, 
the Congress, the Cabinet and the President, in 
every bold and proper method to put down the 
rebellion. The Democrats must not clamor for 
the Union ac it loas. The ihiiiffis absurd and 
never will be seen again.^' 

MOULDING PUBLIC OPINION. 

Says the Boston Liberator: 

"The Republican party is moulding public 
sentiment in the right direction for the spe- 
cific work the Abolitionists arc striving to ac- 
complish, viz: the dissolution of the Union^ and 
the ahulition of slacu-y throughout the land.''' 

MR. LINCOLN IN 1854. 
Mr. Lincoln made a speech at Peoria, Illi- 
nois, on the 16tu of October. 18j4, in which 
he said: 

"What I do say is this: that no man is good 
enough to govern another man without the oth- 
er's consent. — lloueU's Life of Lincoln, p. 
279. 

MR. SEWABU AND VIOLENCE. 

Mr. Seward, in the Senate, March, 1853, 
one year before the John Brown raid, said: 

"The interests of the white race demand the 
ultimate emancipation of all men. Whether 
that consummation shall be allowed to take 
effect with needful and wise precautions against 
sudden change and disaster, or j^^ be hurried 
on by violence, is all that remains for you to 
decide." 

MK. SEWAKD ON THE "lAST STAGE OF CON- 
FLICT." 

Mr. Sewakd made speech at Boston, 1860, 
in which he thus foreshadowed the purpose of 
the Abolition party : 

"What a commentary upon the history of 
man is the fact that eighteen years after the 
death of John Quincy Adams, the people have 
for their standard bearer, Abraham Lincoln, 
conferring the obligations oj the Higher Law, 



whicli the Sage of Quincy proclaimed, and 
contending for weal or woe, for life or death, 
in the impressible conflict between freedom 
and slavery, I desire only to say that we are in 
the last stage of the conflict, before the great 
triumphant inauguration of this policy into 
the government of the United State." 

ME. SEWAKd's JUSTIFICATION FOR DISUNION. 

Mr. Seward, in the Senate, threw this fire- 
brand at the South: 

"Then the Free States and Slave States of 
the Atlantic, divided and warring with each 
other, would disgust the Free States of the 
Pacific, and they would have ahuudant cause 
and Justification for withdrau-ing from the 
Union, productive no longer of peace, safety, 
and liberty to themselves," &c. 

"national" stricken out. 

In the Republican Convention of Chicago, 
1860. at which Mr. Lincoln was nominated, 
we find the following among the proceedings, 
as published in the New York Tribune of May 
18, 1860: 

"Judge Jessup said that he desired to amend 
a verbal mistake in the name of the party. It 
was printed in the resolutions '■National Re- 
publican party.' He wished to strike out the 
word ''National,'' as that was not the name by 
which the party was properly known." 

The correction was made. And does not 
this, of itself, show the sectional, disunion 
aims of the leaders? They could not bear to 
be called National, because that implied fealty 
to the Union. 

BANKS predicts A MILITARY GOVERNJIENT. 

N. P. Banks, in a speech in Massachusetts, 
in 1856, thus predicts a ''Military Dictatorial 
Government": 

"I can conceive of a time when this Consti- 
tution shall not be in existence — when we shall 
hare an absolute military dictatorial Govern- 
ment, transmitted from age to age, with men 
at its head who are made rulers by military 
commission, or who claim an hereditary right 
to govern those over whom they are i^laced." 

carl SCHURZ on REVOLUTION. 

Mr. SciiuRZj in 1860, said: 

"May the God in human nature be aroused 
and pierce the very soul of our nation with an 
energy that shall sweep, as with the besom of 
destruction, this abomination (slavery) from 
the land. You call this revolution. Jt is. In 
this we need revolution; we must, we will have 
it. Let it come!'' 

JOHN P. HALE ON DISSOLUTION. 

On the 12th of July, 1848, John P. Hale 
said: 



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123 



"All the terrors of dissolution I can look 
steadfastly in the face, before I could look to 
that moral Union which must fall upon us when 
we can so far prostitute ourselves as to become 
the pioneers of slavery in the territories.'' 

In the Senate, February 26, 1856, Mr. Hale 
in speaking of the conflict said: 

"Good! good! Sir, I hope it will come, and 
if it comes to blood, let it come. No, sir, if 
that issue must come, let it come, and it can- 
not come too soon."' 

GENERAL BEN. BUTLER FOR "MODERN IM- 
PROVEMEXTS." 

An "ovation" was given to General Butler, 
on his return from New Orleans, by the Re- 
publicans, in New York. The General of 
course made a speech, and of course took 
ground which pleased his admirers. He said: 

"And now my friends, I do not know but 
that I shall commit some heresy; but as a 
Democrat, and as an Andrew Jackson Demo- 
crat, [God save the mark.] I say, I am not for 
the Union as it was, I have the honor to say, 
as a Democrat, that I am not for the Union to 
be again as it was. * * I am not for the 
reconstouction of the Union as it was. I have 
spent tears and blood enoagh on it, in con- 
junction with my fellow citizens, to make it a 
little belter. '■' '■' The old house was good 
enough for me, but as they have pulled down 
the early part, I propose that we rebuild it. 
with all the modern improvements!''^ [That 
is the "Strong Government'' Abolition "im- 
provements."] 

TUE OBJECTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF ABOLI- 
TION AGITATION. 

The lion. Eli Tiiayer, an "old line Whig'' 
and a conservative Republican, addressed a 
Union meeting in New Y'ork, in 1859, in which 
he set forth the objects and consequences of 
the slavery agitation in its true light. We 
make room here for a valuable extract, as show- 
ing the well grounded fears of the conserva- 
tive Union men of that day, in reference to this 
"wolf," which Jefferson said we had "by the 
ears, and can neither hold him nor safely let 
him go," and also to show that the agitators of 
that day had their eyes open — that knowing the 
consequences, they persisted in the course of 
dissolution — as we believe using the slavery 
1 imbroglio as a means to effect their ends — the 
! dissolution of the Union. Mr. Thayer said: 

I "To come, .». , squarely up to the issue, to 

grapple with it fiercely and without parley — 
what is the present aspect and position of the 
slavery question between the South and the 
North? I think that it is comprehended in 



this — that wherever the anti-slavery sentiment 
is introduced into politics and made the sole 
base of party organization and action, it he- 
comes abolitionism, (prolonged applause.) It 
may not be altogether such in the outset, but 
that is its tendency, and must of necessity be 
its result." 

At this period, be it remembered, the Re- 
publicans indignantly spurned the idea that 
they had any sympathy with abolitionism: but 
let us see how very like its father Mr. Tn.\TER 
perceived their likeness. 

"The anti-slavery sentiment as a moraCcon- 
iHction and opinion in the minds and consciences 
of men, no matter how strong is a passive sen- 
timent, and remains such, until introduced in- 
to politics. It then becomes an active agency, 
and if it a?one constitutes a party — if there is 
nothing of the party but what is based on this, 
then we must see what is its antagonism — what 
it is directed against — for every party is an 
active, opposing force, formed for positive and 
aggressive action. Now, will you tell me what 
there is for a party, based solely on anti-slavery 
to oppose, to fight against? Not certainly the 
extension of slavery in the territories — that 
contest is ended. (Applause.) Not the revi- 
val of the slave trade — for this finds too few 
advocates to make an issue. (Applause.) Then 
ceYiaivAj \t must oppose slavtrii.,ns it exists, or 
its office is at an end — "Othello's occupation 
is gone." (Applause.) [How strictly this has 
been verified.] There will of course be many 
classes under this general head — as many dif- 
ferent shades of Abolitionists as there are col- 
ors in the African race — varying from real jet 
of Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom' to the Octoroon 
of Bourcicault. (Applause.) Some, only a 
few, I hope, if they would not engage in it, 
would countenance an insurrection, [see John 
Brown raid at a sample] would furnish arms, 
if they did not use them. [Just what they did 
do.] Many will intensify and inflame the bit- 
ter hatred to slavery and slave holders, [this 
they did do] till the very weight of animosity 
and aversion engendered will make the Union 
unbearable! " 

No prophecy in the Book of Jeremiah ever 
proved more true than this. Indeed, all pene- 
trative minds could not have failed at that time, 
to have seen the result from causes then matur- 
ing. The radicals knew that envy would be 
the parent of hate — that hate would beget 
crimination, — that crimination would propo- 
gate its own species, and that the progeny of 
all these would be dissolution. They knew 
this fact. They could not have been ignorant 
of it. It was the main count in the indict- 
ment, and the Supreme Court of History will 
render its verdict of "guilty" — guilty in the 
first degree, of attempting to compass the life 
of their country. 



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CHAPTER XXI. 

ABOLITIONISTS SHOW THEIR PURPOSE TO DE- 
STROY THE UNION. 

The Various Efforts at Compromise... Conipromise the Basis 
of all Governments. ..General Principles of, Applied... 
The Compromises of the Constitution : What were 
They ?... Messrs. Yates andLansing Retire from the Con- 
vention of 17S7... Compromise between Delaware, Mary- 
land and Other States. ..The First Draft. ..Luther Martin 
on Compromise. ..The Large and Small Small States at 
War on Sutfrage... Compromise on SlaveTrade and Nav- 
igation Acts. ..An Original Plan of Constitution. ..The 
Great Suffrage Question. ..Mr. Martin's Explanations... 
Compromise between Slavery and Navigation. ..The New 
England States Favor the Slave Trade. ..Official Proof... 
Hypocrisy of Abolition States. ..Massachusetts Stealing 
Negroei...Tho Virginia and New Jersey Plan of Govern- 
ment. ..Predictions of Geo. Mason. ..The Missouri Cora- 
promise. ..General Propositions. ..Jackson and Clay on 
Compromise. ..Compromise of lS32-.3...Crompromise of 
1850. ..AVhy the Radicals would not Compromise in 1S61. 

In thLs connection we vrill introduce to the 
reader sundry facts concerning 

THE VARIOUS EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE. 

Compromise is a talismanic word. It pre- 
supposes a controYer.?y, and then it assures us 
of a settlement. 

"Compromise: — To adjust and settle a difference hy 
mutual agreement, with concessions of claims by both 
parties, &c." 

This is Webster's definition. 

Compromise is, indeed, the basis of all gov- 
ernments. No government could exist an hour 
without compromise. Its "usual signification," 
says Webster, is, "mutual agreement — ad- 
justment." Now, let us place all men back to 
first principles — on their natural rights. No 
one man has any control over another, of right. 
The aggregate of all is society, and the aggre- 
gate of societies or communities form states — 
states make up nations. But by what process 
is it all accomplished? A nation must have a 
system of laws — a governing principle. How 
is this to be accomplished? If all thought ex- 
actly alike, there would be no need of laws or 
rulers. But all do not — cannot think alike. 
The good and bad — the wise and the foolish — 
promiscuously mix. Who shall make laws, 
and set the machinery of government in mo- 
tion? Why, the people, of course (in a Dem- 
ocratic Republican Government). But how 
can the people act? Why, by choosing Repre- 
sentatives to make laws, and somebody to ad- 
judicate and administer them. Perhaps all 
may agree to the necessity of this, but the 
manner — the mod* — the how to do it — will be a 
question of conflicting views. One says by 
ballot — another by viva voce. One has objec- 



tions to an aggregate poll — another will not 
consent to a multitude of polls. One has his 
mode of making returns — another his, and so 
on, until a thousand and one objections arise, 
and plans are projected, forming a Baabel of 
ideas, making confusion worse confounded. 

AVhat is to be done? A Government is abso- 
lutely necessary. All concur in that, but the 
mode and manner of getting at it — the system 
and details to be adopted are the points on 
which minds do and will differ. A Icnoics he 
is right and will not yield to B. B swears he 
is right, and scorns to yield to A, while C be- 
tieves both A and B to be wrong, and sets up a 
theory of his own, warranted to be perfect. 
Here, we have a trio of ideas, each in conflict 
with the other. The strong bent of hiunan na- 
ture, and the pride of opinion, breed a strug- 
gle and a contest, for each considers his opin- 
ions and wishes as of much consequence, and 
nearer right than his neighbors, therefore, a 
complete yielding cannot be expected by either 
party. What then? Why, the very law of our 
existence will suggest — a compromise, where- 
upon — 

A says to B, Now this obstinancy is wrong. 
We all agree that we need a government, and 
yet our differences about the 7node of securing 
that government, are likely to finally deprive 
us of its blessings. As we cannot all agree as 
to the exact mode, let us compromise the mat- 
ter. I will agree to a portion of r/our plan, 
you to a portion of mine, while we will both 
agree to a portion of C's. Now, A has touched 
the subsoil of conciliation, for while he invites 
a little yielding from others, he himself yields. 
And this is the basis of amity. It is compro- 
mise. Mutual concessions take away the sting 
of the shout of victory — neither party feels 
vanquished or humiliated — compromise has ac- 
complished its work, and the organization of 
government begins. 

All this is in strict accordance with the the- 
ory of the Declaration that Governments ought 
to be founded on the "consent of the govern- 
ed." No such Government can be formed, ex- 
cept by compromise. 

A Government o{ force — established by the 
sword, neither seeks or yields to compromise. 
A tyrant usurps power by restraining the peo- 
ple of the liberty to compromise. The swoi'd 
IS his means — usurpation his purpose — a ser- 
vile obedience his object. 

We have thus been led to advance these 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK. 



125 



views, because many seem to argue that any 
compromise in reference to the affairs of Gov- 
ernment is the highest of crimes, but it will 
be our purpose to show that these very men en- 
joy their liberty to denounce compromises from 
the very fact that our fathers did compromise — 
yea,and compromised, too, the slavery question. 
As illustrating something of the nature of 
controversies arising in forming and operating 
a Government, and the necessities of compro- 
mise, we feel justified in presenting copious 
extracts from early publications, which will 
shed sufficient light, we trust, on the difficul- 
ties and dangers attending the formation of our 
present Union, to enable those anti-compro- 
misers of the present day to appreciate the 
value and necessity of conceding something to 
obtain much. Washingtos's advice to fre- 
quently have recourse to "fundamental prin- 
ciples," is as good to follow now as ever, and 
while the world is convulsed because our peo- 
ple have ceased to study the fraternal precepts 
of Wasiiingtox, let us consider 

THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

The Struggle in the IS'ational Convention of 
1787 for a supremacj- of "ideas'' and princi- 
j)les, good and bad, was as vigorous as any con- 
test that has transpired since that epoch. Men 
of that day were governed by all the ambition 
and qualities of mind that distinguish men of 
the present era. All parties of all sections 
endeavored to secure the most for self and lo- 
cation. The larger States strove to overreach 
the smaller ones, while the smaller ones were 
jealous of their more powei-ful neighbors. 

As already stated, in another portion of this 
work, the National Convention was divided in 
sentiment as to the nature of the Government 
to be adopted. There was the extreme Demo- 
crotic element, in favor of shearing the power 
of the General Government to the lowest di- 
mensions; the Democratic Republican party, 
in favor of uniting a Democratic and a Repub- 
lican form of Government as near as might be. 
so as to give sufficient strength to the Union to 
make it serviceable for the purposes intended; 
a Federal party, in favor ot confederating pow- 
er in a General Government, under the Repub- 
lican form, and a party of Monarchists, in fa- 
vor of a monarchical government, having un- 
limited sway over the States and the people. 
As might be expected, these clashing elements 
were hard to harmonize, and nothing but a 
spirit of compromise could do it. 



For weeks, said Franklin, the contest hung 
in doubt, as to whether any government would 
be formed, and at one time dissolution and 
eternal separation seemed inevitable. 

Two members from New York, Mr. Yates 
and Mr. Lansing, left the convention, to re- 
turn no more, because they failed to carry cer- 
tain points, and in a joint letter to Governor 
Clinton, they say: 

"Thus circumstanced, under these impres- 
sions, to have hesitated would have been to be 
culpable. We therefore gave the principles 
of the Constitution, which has received the 
sanction of the majority of the convention, 
our decided and unreserved dissent. We were 
not present at the completion of the new con- 
stitution; but, before we left the convention, 
its principles were so well established as to 
convince us that no alteration was to be expect- 
ed to conform it to oui ideas of expediency and 
safety. A persuasion that our further attend- 
ance would be fruitless and unavailing, render- 
ed us less solicitous to return." 

Now, supposing that all the members of that 
convention, who were displeased with some 
portion of its results (and we believe there was 
not one but that objected to some part of the 
instrument adopted) had left the convention 
because their views were not accepted by the 
majority, we should have had no Constitution, 
and of course no Union, but compromise 
brought the Convention together — compromise 
kept it together — compromise preserved it from 
wild disorder and dissolution — compromise 
saved its labors to bless posterity. 

Many of the delegates were trameled by in- 
structions. Those from Delaware were in- 
structed to "yield no point that did not secure 
equal suffrage, as by the original articles of 
confederation" — which was an equal vote in 
Congress, under the new government, with any 
other state. This, of course, was preposter- 
ous, for a state hardly the size of some of the 
counties in others, to demand equal power and 
voice in the new government. But Delaware 
was sovereign then, and had a sovereign right 
to demand conditions. But other states would 
not grant these conditions. Here was a dead 
lock, to begin with. Supposing that all the 
other states should have said we will yield 
nothing of the kind — would not that have been 
an end of the matter, unless one or the other 
party receded, which was not to be expected. 
The matter was of course compro7nised, by 
giving Delaware an equal voice in the Senate, 
and her relative power in the popular branch. 



126 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



This claim set up by Delaware then, was the 
cause of that particular feature of representa- 
tion in our Constitution. 

Maryland contended that Virginia had claim- 
ed more than her share of the power of suf- 
frage [see Jnithcr Martin's Letter in ElliotVs 
Debates, v. \,p. 346] and that her representa- 
tion was too large, while Virginia contended 
that such was not the case. This matter was 
compromised in the system of suffrage agreed 
upon — Virginia yielding a little, and her sister 
states receding a little — neither victorious — 
neither vanguished. 

The Convention agreed by lesolutioa to con- 
sider propositions as well as a schedule for the 
whole Constitution in the committee of the 
whole House, and that after the committee had 
agreed upon any plan or system, any member 
might offer amendments or new propositions in 
open convention. 

To show the compromising spii'it that follow- 
ed, we present here a plan for a constitution 
which passed the committee of the whole, and 
which the spirit of opposition on one side and 
compromise on the other materially modified, 
as the reader will see by comparing this with 
the constitution as adopted. 

''1st. Resolved, That it is the opinion of this 
committee that a National Government ought 
to be established, consisting of a Supreme, 
Legislative, Judiciary and Executive. 

"2d. That the Legislature ought to consist of 
two branches. 

"3d. That the members of the first branch 
of the National Legislature ought to be elected 
by the people of the several States, for the 
term of three years, to receive fixed stipends, 
by which they may be compensated for the de- 
votion of their time to public service, to be 
paid out of the National Treasury; to be inelli- 
gible to any ofiice established by a particular 
State, or under authority of the United States, 
except those particularly belonging to the 
functions of the first branch, during the term 
of service and under the National Government, 
for the space of one year after its expiration. 

"4th. That the members of the Second 
Branch of the Legislature ought to be chosen 
by the individual Legislatures, to be of the 
age of 30 years, at least, to hold their oflices 
for a term sufficient to insure their independ- 
ency, viz.: seven years, one third to go out 
biennially, to receive fixed stipends, by which 
they may be compensated for the devotion of 
their time to public service, to be paid out of 
the National Treasury; to be inelligible to|any 
ofiice by a particular state, or under the au- 
thority of the United States, except those pe- 
culiarly belonging to functions of the Second 
Branch, during the term of service, and un- 



der the National Government, for the spa;e of 
one year after its expiration. 

"5th. That each branch ought to possess the 
right of originating acts. 

''6th. That the National Legislature ought 
to be empowered to enjoy the Legislative rights 
vested in Congress by the Confederation, and 
moreover to legislate in all cases, to which the 
seperate states are incompetent, or in which 
the harmony of the United States, may be in- 
terrupted by the exercise of individual legisla- 
tion, to negative all laws passed by the several 
states [this was the extreme Federal scheme] 
contravening in the opinion of the Legislature 
of the United States, the articles of Union, or 
any treaties subsisting under the authority of 
the Union. 

"7ih. That the right of suffrage in the first 
branch of the National Legislature ought not 
to be according to the rule established in the 
Articles of Confederation, but according to 
some equitable rake of representation, viz.: in 
proportion to the whole number of white and 
other free citizens and inhabitants of every 
age, sex and condition, including those bound 
to servitude for a term of years, and three 
fifths of all other ^persons, not comprehended 
in the foregoing description, except Indians, 
not paying taxes in each state. 

"8th. That the right of suffrage in the sec- 
ond branch of the National Legislature ought 
to be according to the rule established in the 
first. 

"9th. That a national Executive be insti- 
tuted, to consist of a single person, to be chosen 
by the National Legislature for the term of 
seven years, with power to cai-ry into execu- 
tion the national laws — to appoint to offices, in 
cases not otherwise provided for — to be ineli- 
gible a second time, and to be removable on 
impeachment, and conviction of malpractice, 
or neglect of duty — to receive a fixed stipend, 
by which he may be compensated for the de- 
votion of his time to public service — to be paid 
out of the National Treasury. 

"10th. That the National Executive shall 
have a right to negative any legislative act 
Avhich shall not afterwards be passed, unless 
by two-thirds of each branch of the national 
legislature. 

"11th. That a national judiciary be estab- 
lished, to consist of one supreme tribunal, the 
judges of which to be appointed by the second 
branch of the national legislature, to hold 
their offices during good behavior, and to re- 
ceive punctivilly, at stated times, a fixed com- 
pensation for their services, in which no in- 
crease or dimunition shall be made, so as to af- 
fect the persons actually in office at the time of 
such increase or diminution. 

"12th. That the national legislature be em- 
jDowered to appoint inferior tribunals. 

"13th. That the jurisdiction of the Nation- 
al Judiciary shall extend to cases which re- 
spect the collection of the National revenue — 
cases arising under the laws of the United 
States — impeachments of any National officer, 
and questions which involve the National peace 
and harmony. 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



127 



"14th. Resolved, That provision ought to be 
made for the aclmission of states lawfully aris- 
ing within the limits of the United States, 
■whether from a voluntary jurisdiction of Gov- 
ernment terrritory or otherwise, with the con- 
sent of a number of voices in the National Leg- 
islature less than the whole. 

"15th. Resolved, That provisions ought to 
be made for the continuance of Congress, and 
their authority and privileges, until a given 
day after the reform of the articles of Union 
shall be adopted, and for the completion of all 
other engagements. 

"ICith. That a Republican Constitution and 
its existing laws ought to be guaranteed to 
each state of the United States. 

"17th. That provision ought to be made for 
the amendment of the articles of Union when- 
ever it shall seem necessary. 

"18th, That the Legislative, Executive and 
Judiciary powers within the several states 
ought to be bound by oath to Support the articles 
of the Union. 

"19th, That the amendments which shall be 
offered to the Confederation by this Convention 
ought at a proper time, or times, after the ap- 
probation of Congress, to be submitted to an 
assembly or assemblies, recommended by the 
Legislatures, to be expressly chosen by the 
people, to consider and decide thereon." — -yv'. 
356-7-8 Is < V. Elliotts Debates. 

In commenting on this framework for a Con- 
stitution, before the Legislature of Maryland, 
Mr. Luther Martin, a National Delegate, thus 
exposed the jealousies that existed on the sub- 
ject of usurping power by the large states: 

"Hence, these three states (Virginia, Penn- 
sylvania, and Massachusetts) would, in reality, 
have the appointment of the President, Judges, 
and all other officers. This President and 
these Judges, so appointed, we may be morally 
certain, would be citizens of one of those three 
states, and the President, as appointed by them, 
and a citizen of one of them, would espouse 
their interests and their views when they came 
in competition with the views and interests of 
the other states." 

Under the old Confederation, the' States- ex- 
ercised suffrage in the National Congress as 
individual States, and not on the basis of pop- 
ular suffrage among the people — that is, each 
State had just one vote on all matters, and if 
the representation of delegates happened to be 
even in number and equally divided (as was 
often the case), the State had no vote and its 
power was wholly neutralized. This subject 
■was one of the bones of contention in the Na- 
tional convention. On the vote being taken, 
it was found that Connecticut, New York,* 



*New York in population was then below many of the 
other States. 



New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, f (the 
smaller states) were for equal State suffrage, 
as under the Confederation, while the larger 
States, of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vir- 
ginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, were 
for popular suffrage. Here was a dead lock. — 
The States were equally divided, and what 
was to be done? If neither party had yielded 
"an inch," of course it would have been an 
end to the whole matter, for it was a vital 
point. But compromise saved the nation from 
anarchy and dissolution. Be it remembered, 
the States had the same votes in the conven- 
tion they did in Congress, under the Confeder- 
ation — each one vote. As we have seen, the 
difficulty, which at one time seemed insur- 
mountable, was compromised by the larger 
States yielding to the smaller equal State rep- 
resentation in the Senate, and the smaller 
States yielding to the larger equal represen- 
tation in the popular branch. AVho will say 
this was not a just course. 

The way and manner this compromise was 
affected is so appropos to the application we 
are making that we feel justified in letting Mr. 
Martin, a delegate from Maryland, tell the 
story in his own way: 

"Thus, sir, on this great and important part 
of the system — the Convention being equally 
divided — five states for the measure, five against 
and one divided — there was a total stand; and 
we did not seem very likely to proceed any 
farther. At length it was proposed that a se- 
lect committee should be balloted for, com- 
posed of a member from each state, which com- 
mittee should endeavor to devise some mode of 
reconciliation, or compromise. I had the hon- 
or to be on that committee. AVe met and dis- 
cussed the subject of difference. The one side 
insisted on the inequality of suffrage in both 
branches; the other side fquality in both. 
Each party was tenacious of their sentiments 
[as is alwas the case in controversies.] When 
it was found that nothing could induce us to 
yield the inequality in both branches, they at 
length proposed, by way of comprise, if we 
would accede to their wishes as to the first 
branch, <Ae?/ would agree to an equal represen- 
tation in the second. To this it was answered 
that there was no merit in the proposal : in was 
only consenting, after they had struggled to 
put both their feet on our necks, to take one 
of them off. provided we would consent to let 
them keep the other on; when they knew, at 
the same time, that they could not put one 
foot on our necks, unless we would consent to 
it, and that by being permitted to keep on that 

f Mr. Martin was the only delegate present from Mary- 
land, which carried the vote for State suffrage. Had the 
delegation been full it would have been divided. 



12S 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



one foot, tbej should afterwards be sible to 
place the other foot on whenever they pleased. 
"They were also called upon to inform us 
•what security they could give us, should we 
agree to this compromise, that they would 
abide by the plan of government formed upon 
it, any longer than suited their interests, or 
they found it expedient. The States have a 
right to an equality of representation. This is 
secured to us by our present articles of confed- 
eration. We are in possession of this right. 
It is now to be torn from us. What security 
can you give us. that, when you get the power 
the proposed system will give you — when you 
have men and money — you will not force from 
the States that equality of suffrage in the sec- 
ond branch, which you now deny to be their 
right, and only give up from actual necessity? 
Will you tell us we ought to trust you because 
you now enter into a solemn compact with us? 
This you have done before, and noic treat with 
the utmost contempt. Will you now make an 
appeal to the Supreme Being, and call on Ilim 
to guarantee your observance of the Articles 
of Confederation, which you are now violating 
in the most wanton manner ? [This argument 
might well be addressed to the radicals to-day.] 
''The same reason which you now urge for 
destroying our present Federal Government, 
may be urged for abolishing the system you 
propose to adopt ; and as the 7?if^/(0(:Z prescribed 
by the Articles of Confederation is now totally 
disregarded by you, as little regard may be 
shown by you to the rules prescribed for the 
amendments of the new system ! [This was 
prophetic] AVhenever, having obtained power 
by the Government, you shall hereafter be 
pleased to discard it entirely, or so to alter it 
as to give yourselves all that superiority which 
you have now contended for, and to obtain 
which you have shown yourselves disposed to 
hazard the Union ! 

"Such, sir. was the language used on that 
occasion; and they were told that, as we could 
not possibly have a stronger tie on them for 
the observance of the new system than we had 
for their observance of the Articles of Confed- 
eration, (which had proved totally insufficient,) 
it would be very imprudent to confide in them. 
It was further observed, that the inequality of 
the representation would be daily increasing 
— that many of the states, whose territory was 
confined, and whose population was at this 
time large in proportion to their territory, 
■would probably, twenty, thirty or forty years 
hence, have no more representatives than at 
the introduction of the Government; whereas, 
the states having extensive territory, whose 
lands are to be procured cheap, would be daily 
increasing in the number of inhabitants, not 
only from propogation, but from the emigration 
of the inhabitants of the oti. >r states, and 
•would soon have double, or peniaps treble the 
number of Representatives that they are to 
have at first, and thereby enormously increase 
their influence in the National councils. 

"However, the majority of the select coni- 
mittee at length agreed to a series of proposi- 
tions by way of compromise — part of which 



related to the representation in the First 
Branch — nearly as the system is now published 
(in the adopted Constitution) and part of them 
to the second branch, securing in that equal 
representation; and reported them as a com- 
promise, upon the express terms that they were 
to be wholly adopted or wholly rejected. Upon 
this compromise a great number of the mem- 
bers so far engaged themselves, that if the sys- 
tem was proceeded upon agreeably to the terms 
of compromise, they would lend their names 
by signing it, and would not actively oppose it, 
if their states should be inclined to accept it. 
Some, however, in which number was myself, 
who joined in that report, and agreed to pro- 
ceed upon these principles, and see what kind 
of a system would ultimately be formed upon 
it, yet reserved to themselves in the most ex- 
plicit manner, a right of finally giving a sol- 
emn dissent to the system, if it was thought by 
them inconsistent with the freedom and happi- 
ness of their country. This, sir, will account 
why the gentlemen of the Convention so gen- 
erally signed their names to the system — not 
because they thought it a proper one — not be- 
cause they thoroughly approved, or were unan- 
imous for it — but because they thought it better 
than the system attempted to be forced upon 
them. This report of the select committee 
was, after long discussion, adopted by a ma- J 
jority of the Convention, and the system was ■ 
proceeded in accordingly. I believe near a *' 
fortnight — perhaps more — was spent in the dis- 
cussion of this business, during which we were 
on the verge of dissolution, scarce held together 
by the strength of a hair, though the public 
papers were announcing our extreme unanim- 
ity." 

Such were some of the difficulties encoun- 
tered by our fathers in reference to only one 
point of issue then pending. The same species 
of opposing views and clashing interests 
arose on almost every section of the Constitu- 
tion — all of these discordant elements had to 
be met by the spirit of compromise. 

COMEROMISE BETWEEN SL.WERT AND NAVIGA- 
TION. 

We have not room in this connection to no- 
tice, even by reference, any other point of dif- M 
ference and the compromises thereon, save ■ 
that pertaining to the slave trade and the nav- 
igation laws. 

Some portions of the South were very 
anxious to be protected in the slave trade for a 
considerable period, in order, as they said, to 
compensate them for the losses of slave pro- 
perty during the Revolution. On the other 
hand, Now England was very jealous lest the 
non commercial states should place some ob- 
stacles ■ on commerce and navigation, and 
when the slave trade clause came up for con- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



12'J 



sideration, and was referred to a committee, 
New England delegates were not slow in using 
their influence to send the clause pertaining to 
navigation to the same committee. The blend- 
ing of these two dissimilar subjects shows the 
real object to make the one act as a weight to 
compromise in favor of the other. We will let 
a member of the Convention and the Commit- 
tee (Mr. Martin) explain the mode of doing 
this: 

'■By the 9th section of this article, the im- 
portation of such persons as any of the states 
now existing shall think proper to admit, shall 
not be prohibited prior to the year 1808, &c. 

"The design of this clause is to prevent the 
General Government from prohibiting the im- 
portation of si nvcs. but the same reason which 
caused them to strike out the word "Nation- 
al," and not admit the word "stamps," [be- 
cause at that time these words were odious.] 
influenced thciu here to guard against the 
word "slaves." They anxiously sought to 
avoid the admission of expressions which might 
be odious in the ears of Americans, although 
they were willing to admit into their system 
those things which the expression signified; 
and hence it is, that the clause is so worded, 
as really to authorize the General Government 
to impose a duty of ten dollars on every for- 
eigner who comes into a state to be a citizen, 
whether he comes absolutely free, or qualified- 
ly as a servant; although this is contrary to 
the design of the framers, and the duty was 
only meant to extend to the importation of 
slaves. 

"This clause was the subject of a great di- 
versity of sentiment in the Convention. As 
the system, was reported by the Committee of 
Detail, the provision was general, that such 
importation should not be prohibited, without 
confining it to any particular period. This 
was rejected by eight states, Georgia. South 
Carolina, and, / think, North Carolina voted 
for it. 

"We were then told by the delegates of the 
two first of these States, that their States 
would never agree to a system which put it in 
■ the power of the General Government to pre- 
vent the importation of slaves, and that they, 
as delegates from those States, must withhold 
their votes from such a system. 

"A committee of one member from each 
State was chosen by ballot, to take this part 
of the system under their consideration, and 
to endeavor to agree upon some report, which 
would reconcile these States. To this commit- 
tee also was referred the following proposition: 

"No navig.Ttion net shall be passeil witlinut tho assent 
of two-thirds uf the members present in each House." 

A proposition which the staple and commer- 
cial States were solicitious to retain, lest their 
commerce should be placed too much under 
the power of the Eastern States, but which 
these last States were anxious to reject. This 
committee, of which I have had the honor 



to be a member — met — and took under consid- 
eration the subjects committed to them. I 
found the Eastern States, notwithstanding 
their aversion to slavery were very willing to 
indulge the Southern States, at least with a 
temporary liberty to prosecute the slave trade, 
Provided, the Southern States would, in their 
turn, gratify them, Inj laying no restriction on 
navigation acts, and after a very little time 
the committee, by a great majority, agreed on 
a report, by which the General Government 
was to be prohibited from preventing the im- 
portation of slaves for a limitied time, (1800), 
and the restriction relative to navigation acts, 
was to be omitted." — ElliotOa Debates, Vol. 1, 
p. 373. 

MASS.\CnVSETT3 FAVORS TUB SLAVE TRADE. 

Thus have we a clue to the compromise of 
the Constitution on the slavery question. Re- 
collect that the original committee of thirteen 
had recommended that the constitutional li- 
cense to the slave trade should cease at the 
period of 1800. But this did not suit the ava- 
rice of some of the New England states, and 
we copy trom the secret record of the debates, 
kept by Mr. Yates, a member from New York. 
\_See Elliotth Debates, v. 1, ji. 264-5. 

"It was moved and seconded to amend the 
report of the committee of eleven, entered on 
the Sournal of the 24th [August 1787] inst., 
as follows: 

"To strike out the words 'the year eighteen liunJreJ,' 
and insert 'the year eightccu hundred and eiyld.' 

"Which passed in the affirmative, 

'■Yeas. — ycm Hamjisliiri', Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
Maryland, XortU Carolina, South Carolinaand Georgia.— 7. 

"Xats. — New .Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Vir- 
ginia — -1." 

To show that what Mr. Martin said above 
was true, that many states did not wish to in- 
cur the "odium" of inserting the word "slave" 
in the Constitution, yet were willing to reap 
the pecuniary benefit from tho thing itself, we 
copy further, continuously from this ofBcial 
report: 

"It was moved and seconded to amend the 
first clause of the report to read — 

"The importation of slaves into such of the 
states as shall permit the same shall not be pro- 
hibited by the Legislature of the United States 
prior to the year 1808. 

"Which was passed in the negative, 

"Yeas. — C'onneclicut, Virginia and Georgia--.3. 
"Xats. — Xew Ilanjpsliire, M.assachusetts, Pennsylva- 
nia, Delaware, North Carolina and South Carolina- -6. 
"Divided — iMary land — 1 . 

This was the same proposition as that which 

followed, except it contained the word '■'■slave.''' 

It seems that even Connecticut had then no 

scruples about that word being in the Consti- 



130 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



tution, while all but two of the slave states 
had. 

Now, mark the hypocrisy of the three New 
England Abolition states that voted to con- 
tinue the inhuman slave trade for eight years 
longpr than some of the slave states desired- 
We continue our quotation: 

"On the question to agree to the first part of 
the report, as amended, viz: 

'"The migration or importation of such persons as the 
saveral states now existing siaall think proper to admit, 
shall not be prohibited by the Legislature [Congress] prior 
to the year ISUS' — 

"it passed in the affirmative: 

"Yeas — Xeiv HamjJskire., JIassachiiseiis, Connecticut, 
Maryland, North Carolina, !:?outh Carolina and Georgia — 7. 

"Nats — New Jersey, Peuusylvauia, Delaware aud Vir- 
ginia — 4." 

Thus, it will be seen that if the three states 
which have all along been willing to break up 
the Union, on account of slavery, had went 
■with their Northern sisters, and with the slave 
states o{ Del aiv are and FtV^i^ziia, the vote would 
have stood right the reverse — 4 for and 7 
against the eight additional years of the trade 
which has been declared fJiVacy by the laws of 
civilized nations. 

If there be efficacy in prayer, we trust that 
all good people will pray that Massachusetts, 
Connecticut and New Hampshire may cast the 
black beam out of their own eyes before they 
declare they see "disloyalty" in every moJe 
in their neighbor's eyes. A liitle going back 
to "first principles" might teach them to be 
humble, even as a peacock doth drop his 
plumes when he beholds his own dirty feet ! 

We raise no complaint, even at this mode of 
compromising. It cannot be objected to even 
on such a subject, for without a compromise, 
no Union could have been effected. We only 
object to the subterfuge and subsequent dis- 
play of hypocrisy. 

The question may be raised as to the motive 
that then induced the three principal New 
England States to engage in the slave trade at 
all, or to desire its continuance. The answer 
is summed up in one compound word — self- 
interest^ which is the mainspring of all com- 
mercial transactions. For more than a century 
the ships of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and 
others, had been profitably engaged in the 
slave trade, which it was hard to relinquish, 
and twenty years promised more profits than 
twelve years. The very fact that they agreed 
to suppress it at all, shows that they ^Acwknew 
it to be as wrong as it is to-day. 



MASSACHUSETTS STEALING NIGGERS. 

Thus, for twenty years aftjr the Constitu- 
tion was formed, did Massachusetts, and the 
other New England states, prosecute the slave 
trade. Their slave merchantmen piratically 
tore from the coast of Guinea thousands of the 
unoffending natives, transported them through 
the horrors and suffocation of the "Middle 
Passage," and sold them for gold t© the plant- 
ers of South Carolina, Georgia, &c., and ever • 
since the constitutional prohibition began to 
run they have been endeavoring to break up 
the Union, because the Southern states owned 
and worked the very slaves these abolition hu- 
manitarians stole from Africa and sold to them. 
Enough! We have no heart to further pursue 
so dark a subject. 

There were dozens of plans submitted to the 
original National Convention, embracing al- 
most every conceivable variety and form of 
Government. We have not space to notice 
them all in detail, but will note the difference 
between two plans submitted by Virginia and J 
New Jersey, respectively, as a sample of the m 
whole, that the reader may see something of 
the difficulties in the way of compromise. 

The Virginia plan proposed two branches of 
Congress ; 

New Jersey a single branch. 

Virginia — Legislative powers derived from 
the people : 

New Jersey' — same from the States. 

Virginia — a single Executive ; 

New Jersey — more than one. 

Virginia — that a majority of Congress could 

act ; 
New Jersey — a small majority could control. 

Virginia — Congress to legislate on all Na- 
tional concerns ; 

New Jersey — only on limited objects. 

Virginia — Congress to negative all State 
laws ; 

New Jersey — Giving power to Executive to 
compel obebience by force. 

Virginia — To remove Executive by impeach- 
ment ; 

New Jersey — On application of majority of 
States. 

Virginia — For establishment of inferior ju- 
dicial tribunals ; 

New Jersey — No provision. 

PREDICTION OF GEO. MASON. 

" This Government will commence in a mod- 
erate aristocracy : It is at present impossible 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



131 



to foresee whether it ■will, in its operations 
produce a monarchy or a corrupt, oppressive 
aristocracy — it will most probably vibrate 
some years between the two, and then termi- 
nate in one or the other. 

"GEO. MASON." 
[SeeElHoU's Debates, 1, p. 496. 

Our Government was not only created on the 
basis of compromise, but it has only been kept 
together up to the election of Abkaiiam Lin- 
coln by that spirit of compromise which 
brought its form and substance from the chaos 
of the Confederation. 

THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

In 1819 the cloud of dissolution arose from 
behind the Missouri question. Missouri ask- 
ing and demanding to be admitted with her 
slavery constitution on the one hand, while the 
Abolitionists of the North declared she should 
never be admitted as a slave state. Here was 
two extreme propositions. Neither party would 
yield wholly to the other, for that cannot be 
expected in any controversy. At least, few 
instances of the kind have been recorded by 
history. Both parties must yield something, or 
war and dissolution followed. 

MR. clay's compromise. 

Thus matters stood when Mr. Clay, the 
great American champion of compromises, 
brought forth his celebrated Missouri compro- 
mise, which was finally incorporated into the 
Missouri Act of Admission, as the 8th sec- 
tion, and which consisted in drawing an ima- 
ginary line of 36 deg. 30 min. north latitude, 
to the western boundary of Missouri, and pro- 
viding that slavery should never exist north of 
that line. This is what the Southern party 
yielded to the Northern party, in considera- 
tion of the Admission of Missouri as a slave 
state, with another condition that the article 
in the constitution prohibiting free blacks from 
settling in that State, should be stricken out. 
Under these provisions, Missouri was admitted 
as a State, by proclamation of President Mon- 
roe, in the summer of 1821 — the people of 
Missouri, in the mean time having voted to ac- 
cept the conditions of the compromise. 

Thus, the Missouri imbroglio blew over, 
while parties busied themselves in getting up 
a new cause of irritation. They were not 
long in maturing their mischievous plans. 
J. The tariflF of 1828, passed while the "Fed- 
eral Republicans" were in power, was excess- 
ively offensive to the South, and especially to 



South Carolina. And in 1832 that state posi- 
tively bid defiance to the General Government, 
and resolved to resist its revenue law of 1828. 
At one time civil war seemed inevitable, but 
the firm, yet compromising spirit of General 
Jackson, aided by the accommodating spirit 
of Henry Clay, soon allayed discontent and 
restored the relations of peace and obedience to 
law. South Carolina was opposed to all tariffs. 
The manufactui'ing states were for a high 
"protective'" (prohibitory) tariff. Here was 
the two extremes. If neither had yielded, war 
was inevitable. One could not in "honor" 
yie]d tch oil y to the other. Hence, the "pro- 
tectionists" yielded so as to bring the tariff to 
the supposed standard of revenue, while the 
nullifiers yielded their opposition to all tariffs, 
so as to consent to the revenue standard — and 
here was the common mean between the two 
extremes. Compromise accomplished in this 
what perhaps half a million of lives and five 
thousand millions of property could not accom- 
plish, while subsequent history demonstrated 
the fact that that the basis of actual settlement 
was really more beneficial to both parties than 
cither extreme would have been to either party. 

GEN. JACKSON ON COMPROMISE. 

As the spirit in which Gen. Jackson treated 
this embroglio maybe of some service to those 
who are not too mad to reason, we introduce it 
here, in the language of Col. Benton: 

"Such was the message which President 
Jackson sent to the two Houses in relation to 
the South Carolina proceedings, and his own 
to counteract them, and it was worthy to fol- 
low the proclamation, and commenced in the 
same spirit of justice and patriotism, and 
therefore wise and moderate. * * '■■ His 
proclamation, his message, and all his pro- 
ceedings, therefore, bore a two-fold aspect — 
one of relief and justice, in reducing the mea- 
sure to the wants of the Government, in the 
economical administration of its affairs — the 
other of firm and mild authority, in enforcing 
the laws against offenders. * * '- Bills 
for the reduction of the tariff — one commenced 
in the Finance Committee of the Senate, and 
one reported from the Committee of Ways and 
Means of the House of Representatives, and 
both moved in the first days of the session, 
and by committees politically and personally 
favorable to the President, u'ent hand in hand 
iviih the exhortations in the proclamation, and 
the steadi/ preparations for enforcing the laios. 
if the extension of Justice and the appeals to 
reason and patriotism should prove insuj^cient 
Many thought that he ought to relax in his 
civil measures, for allaying discontent, while 
South Carolina held the military attitude of 



132 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



armed hostility to tlie United States, and 
among them Mr. Quincy Adams. But he ad- 
hered steadily to his purpose of going on ivith 
what justice required for the reliff of the South, 
and promoted bg all the means in his power the 
success of the bills to reduce the measure, espe- 
cially the bill in the House, and which being 
framed upon that of 1816, (which had the sup- 
port of Mr. Calhoun,) and which was (now 
that the public debt was paid,) sufficient both 
for revenue and the incidental protection which 
manufacturers required, and for the relief of 
Ihe South, must have had the effect of satisfy- 
ing every honest discontent, and of exposing 
and estopping that which would not." — I'hirig 
Tears, p. 308. 

This was the noble, yet firm and patriotic 
stand taken by Gen. Jackson to cast water 
instead of pitch on the flames of civil discon- 
tent. 

HENRY CLAY OS THE S.IME SUBJECT. 

The manly and patriotic sentiments uttered 
by Mr. Clay when he introduced his compro- 
mise tariff bill, is a noble model of enlight- 
ened statesmanship, which is worthy of being 
framed in gilt to garnish the best statesman's 
library on the globe. He said: 

"Sir. I repeat, that I think South Carolina 
has been rash, intemperate, and greatly in the 
wrong, but I do not want to disgrace her, nor 
any other member of this Union. No, I do not 
desire to see the lustre of one single star dim- 
med of that glorious confederacy which consti- 
tutes our political system. Still less do I wish 
to see it blotted out and its light obliterated 
forever. Has not the state of South Carolina 
been one of the members of this Union in days 
that 'tried men's souls?' Have not her ances- 
tors fought alongside our ancestors. Have we 
not conjointly won many a glorious battle. If 
we had to go into a civil war with such a state 
how would it terminate? Whenever it should 
have terminated, what would be her condition? 
If she should ever return to the Union what 
would be the condition of her feelings and af- 
fections? What the state of the heart of her 
people? She has been Avith us before, when 
her ancestors mingled in the throng of battle, 
as I hope our posterity will mingle with hers 
for ages and centuries to come, in the united 
defense of liberty, and for the honor and glory 
of the Union. I do not wish to see her degrad- 
ed or defaced as a member of this Confedera- 
cy." 

Mr. Clay's second speech in defense of his 
compromise bill was equally honorable and pa- 
triotic. Such a speech, made by the same man, 
now-a-days, would be pronounced, in "loyal" 
nomenclature, as "copperhead treason." Mr. 
Clay said: 

"This, or some other measure oi conciliation, 
is now more than ever necessary since the 



passage through the Senate of the Enforcing 
Bill. * * * It appears to me, then, Mr. 
President, that we ought not to content our- 
selves with passing the Enforcing Bill only — 
Both that and the Bill of Peace seem to me to 
be required for the good of our country. * * 
The difference between the friends and the 
foes sf the compromise under consideration, is, 
that they would, in the enforcing act send 
forth ALONE a flaming sword — wexvottld send 
out that, but along ivith it the Olive Branch, 
as a messenger of peace. The// cry out, '■'■The 
law! The law!! The law!!! Power! Power!! 
Power! ! ! We, too, revere the laws, and bow 
to the supremacy of its obligation, but we are 
in favor of the law executed in mildness, and 
poicer tempered with mercy. ■» * * Y^e 
want no war — above all, no civil war — no fam- 
ily strifes. We want to see no sacked cities — 
no desolated fields — no smoking ruins — no 
streams of American blood shed by American 
arms. 

"Pass this bill — tranquolize the country, re- 
store confidence and affection in the Union, and 
I am willing to go home to Ashland, and rc- 
nounccpuhlic ser vie.: forever. '■• "^ * Yes. I 
have ambition! but it is the ambition of being 
the humble instrument in the hands of Provi- 
denee, to reconcile a divided people — once 
more to revive concord and harmony, in a dis- 
tracted land. The pleasing ambition of con- 
templating the glorious spectacle of a free, 
united, prosperous and practical people!" 

The settlement of the South Carolina con- 
troversy left peace and all its fraternal bless- 
ings to flow uninterruptedly for eighteen years, 
till 1850 — but the spirit of discord and the 
demon of dissolution were at work, and scarce- 
ly a month passed of this eighteen years that 
did not witness the utterance of some treason- 
able sentiment in favor of dissolution. 

In the progress of events, and the fullness of 
our history, a war with Mexico not only settled 
a long pending controversy, over repeated in- 
sults, injuries and wrongs, but gave us New 
Mexico and California. The immediate and 
almost providential discovery of rich fields of 
gold in our newly acquired Pacific possessions, 
stimulated emigration to such extent that Cal- 
ifornia put in motion the whole machinery of a 
State Government, and asked admission into 
tho sisterhood of states, as a free state. 

The claims of that State were resisted by 
the slavery "balancc-of-power" men of the 
South, because there happened to be no slave 
State ready for admission as an offset, to keep 
up the political equilibrium between the two 
sections of our common country, so basely di- 
vided by political agitators on both sides of the 
line between slave and free states. In this the 
South had no constitutional cause of com- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



133 



plaint, because she had no constitutional right 
to demand that this "equilibrium" should be 
kept up. But the "occasion" gave to her pol- 
iticians a pretext for complaint, which they lost 
no time in entangling with the slavery agita- 
tion generally. The bad faith of the North in 
reference to the rendition of fugitive slaves — 
the personal liberty bills that virtually render- 
ed nugatory the fugitive law of 1793 — were 
made to play their part in the budget of com- 
plaints, claims and counter claims, until the 
controvery became mixed with merit and demer- 
it on both sides. The crisis at one time became 
alarming, when again shone forth, in all their 
brilliancy, and not in the least dimmed by age, 
the compromising qualities of Clay, who with 
Wkbster, Crittenden, Douglas, and such 
old Nestors of patriotic fame, became active to 
still once more the noises of faction, and who 
endeavored to dry up the fountains of discord 
by the system of compromise adopted in 1850. 

The measures linown as the "compromise 
measures" (or omnibus) of 1850, were as fol- 
lows: 

1st, The admission of California, with her 
free Constitution. [In this the South yielded.] 

2d. The erection of the territory of Utah, 
leaving the people to regulate their own af- 
fairs [No particular yielding on either side.] 

3d. The creation of New Mexico into a ter- 
ritorial government, with like provisions. [No 
particular yielding on either side.] 

4th. The adjustment of the Texas boundary 
question. [Claimed by abolitionists to have 
been a concession to the South.] 

5th. Abolition of the slave trade in the Dis- 
trict of Coluipbia. [Concessions by the South 
to the North.] 

6th. The amendments to the Fugitive Slave 
Law. [A concession in mode of operating, to 
the South, but no concession as to principle.] 

These measures received the concurrence of 
such men as Clay, Webster, Cass, Douglas, 
Benton, Dickinson, &c., and were consider- 
ed as settling the whole controversy. Both the 
Democratic and Whig National Conventions of 
1852, agreed most solemnly to stand by these 
compromises. But the radical element in the 
Whig party was turbulent, and refused to ac- 
quiesce, and immediately the agitation began. 
The radicals took the field with Birney at 
their head, in 1852, when the Whigs found 
themselves severely beaten. The party vainly 
struggled on, with little vitality, for two years, 



when it disbanded, and the "Free Soil" or 
abolition party drank in most of its members, 
and from that day to this the agitation has con- 
tinued, wholly on a sectional basis. The re- 
sult need not be portrayed by us. But it re- 
mains for us, in this chapter, to perform the 
unpleasant duty of considering 

THE FRUITLESS EFFORTS TO COMPROMISE IN 1?61. 

Alas, Clay, Webster and Be.vton — the 
heroes of the compromise of 1850 — were gone 
to their final account. Douglas was pros- 
trate, and soon followed his old compeers — 
Cass, at a ripe old age, had been retired from 
the National counsels. Political agitators and 
cheap politicians occupied their once honored 
places. 

The hour of trial came — the crisis, long ac- 
cumulating its virus, had broken forth — the 
shock of dissolution was terribly felt. The 
causes that produced or hastened the black 
evils of the hour, belong not for us to canvass 
here. Go to the first fifty pages of this work 
and read for yourself. There you will find 
the cause. There, every line is a sermon — 
every sentence an oration — almost every ex- 
tract an obituary. Could the authors of "all 
this riot" be induced to filter and settle the 
waters they had riled — could prattling youth, 
stern manhood, ripe old age, or pleading 
wives, or agonized daughters and sisters, by 
the loud tones of discontent, or the mute ex- 
postulations of fear, move the guilty authors of 
the impending calamities to make an effort to 
retrace their steps — to desist from acts of 
efifrontei'y that stimulated exasperation, and 
heated to a boiling temper the mad spirit of 
fiiction — could these agitators be induced to 
pour oil on the troubled waters — in short, to 
compromise the jarring claims of faction, so as 
to bless the world with peace? No, they could 
not, and we are left the mournful task of re- 
cording the reasons 

WHY the radicals WOULD NOT COMTROMISE 

IN 1861. 
When the cloud of war broke forth in all its 
fury, as Jefferson predicted in 1821, all pat- 
riotic lovers of the Union strove to avert the 
evils, and to turn the tide of fratricidal war. 
Various were the efforts, and numerous the 
propositions to compromise our national differ- 
ences, and to go on once more in the brotherly 
path of peace, possessing 'the manifold objects 
which invited us to untold blessings and hap- 



134 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



piness. But the tide of the destoyers of the 
Union was at its flow— the crisis they had louj; 
sought to create, had arrived, with the addi- 
tional advantage of having the reigns of Gov- 
crnmeut in their power, so that while they 
might not be able to control the storm, they 
could direct the course of the ship of state, 
with a view to cause sufficient damage to justi- 
fy in their belief a 5'e«e/-a^ overhauling and re- 
paiVs,with "all the modern improvements," as 
expressed by Gen. Butler in New York. 

The following full history of the Critten- 
den compromise, and the action of the Repub- 
lican party thereon was compiled by a distin- 
guished patriot, and we here present it in de- 
tail. We can well afford the space it occupies, 
as it covers the most important history of our 
country. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE RADICALS DETERMINED TO PliEVEMT A 
SETTLEMENT. 

Could the Present TVar have been Avoi(lf'1...Conipleto 
History of the Crittemien Compromise. ..Votes, Kesolves, 
Propositions, &c. 

COULD THE PRESENT WAR HAVE BEEN AVOID- 
ED HISTORY OF THE CRITTENDEN COM- 
PROMISE. 

"We know of no great revolution which might not Lave 
been preveutedby compromise early and graciously made. 
Firmness is a great virtue in public aft'airs, but it has its 
sphere. Conspiracies and insurrections, in which small 
minorities are engaged, the outbrcakings of popular vi- 
olence uncounecteii with any extensive project or any 
durable principle, are best repressed by vigor and decision- 
To shrink from tbem is to make them formidable. But no 
•wise ruler will confound the pervading taint with the slight 
local irritation. No wise ruler will treat the deeply-seated 
discontents of a great party as he treats the conduct of a 
mob which destroys mills and power-looms. The neglect 
of this distinction has been fatal even to governments 
strong in the power of the sword. * * « 

In all movements of the human mind which tend to great 
revolutions, there is a crisis at which moderate concessions 
may amend, conciliate and preserve." — Macaulay. 

No truer words were ever uttered by any 
historian ; and had we had a wise ruler instead 
of the present weak-minded Chief Magistrate, 
we should not now have to lament the deplora- 
ble condition to, which the country is reduced 
by the want of those timely concessions, which 
would hiive conciliated and preserved. To 
show to a people how they have been made the 
dupes of a class of men"whose hostility," in the 
language of the lamented Douglas, "to slavery 
is stronger than their fidelity to the Constitu- 
tion, and who believed that the disruption 
would draw after it, as an inevitable conse- 
quence, civil war, servile insurrections, and, 
finall}', the utter extinction of slavery in all 
the Southern States," we have made up from 
the record a history of the "Cx-ittenden Com- 



promise." It will develop the great crime 
that has been committed against liberty, civil- 
ization and humanity, by men, who, unfortu- 
nately for the American people, had, for over 
two years past, the direction of our national 
affairs. 

On the 18th day of December, 1860, Senator 
Crittenden, of Kentucky, introduced into the 
Senate of the United States a series of resolu- 
tions as a basis of settlement of the difficulties 
between the North and the South — difficulties, 
which at that time, threatened the peace of the 
country and the integrity of the Union. {^Cou' 
geessional Globe, Part 1, session of 18b0-61, 
page 114 ] 

Senator Hale (Abolition) led off in a speech. 
in opposition to the resolutions, declaring it to 
be his opinion that the remedies of our troubles 
were not in Congressional action. He said: 

"I do not knovv that this Congress can do anything; but 
this controversy will not be settledhere." 

He was right. The controversy was not set- 
tled there. Would to God it had been! But 
we all know that the reason why it was not set- 
tled there was, the Republicans would not per- 
mit it. Douglas told them, on the floor of the 
Senate, that the responsibility of the failure 
was with them. The Republican Senators and 
Representatives acted on the idea of Senator 
Chandler, cf Michigan, who declared that with- 
out a little blood-letting the Union would not 
be worth a rush. 

No further action was had on these resolu- 
tions, except ordering them to be printed, un- 
til January 2d, 1861, (South Carolina having 
seceded Dec. 20, and her delegation withdrawn 
from Congress Dec 24, 1800) when Mr. Crit- 
tenden introduced them anew with a different 
preamble, 'in which shape thev read as follows: 
(Page 237,) 

"Whereas, The Union is in danger, and owing to the 
unhappy divisions existing in Congress,it would l>c difficult, 
if not impossible,fortliat body to concur in buth its branches 
by the requisite majority, so as to enable it either to adopt 
such measures of legislation or to recommend to the States 
such amendments to the Constitution as are deemed neces- 
s.iry and proper to avert that danger; and whereas in sa 
great an emergency the opinion and judjjjuient of the peo- 
ple ought to be heard, and would be 'lie best and surest 
guide to their represen^atives; therefore 

"Resolved, 1\nt provisions ought to be made by law, 
without delay, for taking the sense of the people, and sub- 
mitting to their vote the following resolutions, as the basis 
tur the final and permanent settlement of those disputes 
that now disturb the po.ice of the country, and threaten 
the existence of the Union. 

"Besolved by the Senate and House of Sepresentatives 
of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, 
two-thirds of hoth Houses concurrinr). That the following 
articles be and are liereby proposed and submitted as 
aiuendmendments to the Constitution of the United States, 
which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of 
said Constitution, when ratified by Conventions of three- 
fjurths of the several States: 

"Article 1. In all the territory of the United States now 
bald, or hereafter acquired, situated north of latitude tliir- 
ty-six degrees and thirty minutes, slavery or involuntary 
servitude, except as a punishuient ofcrinie, is prohibited 
while such territory shall remain under territorial gov- 
ernment. In all the territory now held, or hereafter ac- 
quired, south of said line of latitude, slavery of the Afri- 
can race is hereby recognized as existing, and shall not 
be interfered with by Congress; but shall be protected as 
jiroperty by all the departmeuts of the Territorial govern- 
ment during its continuance; and when any territory 
north or south of said lino, within such boundaries as Con- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



135 



gress may pri'pscrilie, sbnil contain the population re«}usite 
for a member of Congress according to the tlien Feilcral 
ratio of representation of the people of tlie United Status 
it shall if its form of government bo reiiublican, be admit- 
ted into the Union on an equal footing with tlie original 
States, with or without slaverj', as the Constitution of 
such new State may provide. 

"Art. 2. Congress shall have no power to abolish slav- 
ery in places uniler its exclusive jurisdiction, or within the 
limits of States that permit the holding of slaves. 

"Art. 3. Congress shall have no power to abolish 
slavery within the District of Columbia, so long as it ex- 
ists in the adjoining States of Virginia and Maryland, or 
either, nor without the consent of the inhabitants, nor 
without just compensation iirst made to said owners of 
slaves as do not consent to such abolishment. Nor shall 
Congress at any time prohibit officers of the Federal Gov- 
ernment or members of Congress, whose duties require 
them to be in said District, from bringing with them their 
slaves, and holdihg them as such during the time their 
duties may require them to remain there, and afterward 
taking them fioni the District. 

"Art. 4. Congress shall have no power to prohibit or 
hinder the transportation of slaves, from one State to an- 
other, or to a Territory in which slaves are by law permit- 
ted to be held, whether that tran.sportion be by laud, nav- 
igable rivers, or by sea. 

"Art. 5. That in addition to the provisions of the third 
paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of the 
Constitution of the United States, Congress shall have 
power tu provide by law,an<I it shall be.its duty so to provide, 
that the United States shall pay to the owner who shall ap- 
ply 'for it the full value of his fugitiveslave,in all cases when 
the' Marshal, or other officers whoso duty it was to arrest 
said tugitive, was prevented from so doing by violence or 
intimidation, or when, after arrest, said fugitive was res- 
cued by force, and the owner thereby prevented and ob- 
structed in the pursuit of his remedy for the recovery of 
of his fugitive slave, under tlia said clause of the Constitu- 
tion and the laws made in pursuance thereof. And in such 
cases when the United States shall pay for such fugitive, 
they shall have the right in their own name to sue the 
county in which said violence, intimidation, or rescue, was 
committed, and to recover from it, with interest and dam- 
ages the amount paid by them for said fugitive slave. And 
the said county after it has paid said amount to the United 
States, may, for its indemnity, sue and recover from the 
wrong-doers or rescuers, by whom the owner was prevent- 
ed from the recovery of his fugitive slave, in like manner 
as the owner himself might have sued and recovered. 

"Art. 0. No future amendment of the Constitutiou 
shall effect the five preceding articles, nor the third para- 
graph of the second section of the first article of the Con- 
stitution, nor the third paragraph of the second section of 
the fourth article of said Constitution, and no amendment 
shall be made to the Constitution which will authoi ize or 
give to Congress any power to abolish or interfei e with 
slavery in any of the States by whose laws it is or may be 
allowed or permitted. 

"And, wkEREAS, also, besides those causes of dissension 
embraced in the foregoing amendments proposed to the 
Constitution of the United States, there are others which 
come within the jurisdiction of Congress, and may be rem- 
edied by its legislative power; and, whereas, it is the de- 
sire of Congress, as far as its power will extend, to remove 
all just CAHse for the popular discontent and agitation 
which now disturb the peace of the country, and threaten 
the stability of its institutions; therefore, 

''Sesolved, hythe Senate and House nf liepresentaiives 
of the United States of America, in (Congress assembled, 
That the laws now in force for the recovery of fugitive 
slaves are in strict pursuance of the Constitution, and 
have been sanctioned as valid and constitutional by the 
Supreme Court of the United States; that the slavehold- 
ing states are entitled to the faithful observance and exe- 
cution of those laws, and that they ought not to be re- 
pealed or so modified or changed as toimpair their efficien- 
cy; and that laws ought to be made for the punishment of 
those who attempt, by the rescue of the slaves, or other 
illegal means, to hinder or defeat the due execution of 
said laws. 

"2. That all State laws which conflict with the Fugitive 
Slave Acts, or any other constitutional act of Congress, or 
which, in their opinion impede, hinder or delay the fi ee 
course and due execution of any of said acts, are null and 
void by the plain provisionsof the Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States. Yet those State laws, void as they are, have 
given color to practices aud lead to consequences which ' 



have obstructed the due administration and execution of 
actsof Congress,and especially the acts for the delivery of 
fugitive slaves, and have thereby contributed much to the 
discord and commotion now prevailing. Congress, there- 
fore, in the present perilous juncture does not deem it im- 
proper, respectfully and earnestly to recommend the re- 
peal of those laws to the several States which have enacted 
them, or such legislative corrections or explanations of 
them as may prevent their being used or perverted to such 
mischievous purposes, 

"3. That the act of the ISth of September, 1850, com- 
monly called the Fugitive Slave Law, ought to be so 
amended as to make the fee of the Cemmissioner, mention- 
ed in the eighth section of this act, equal in amount, in 
the case decided by him, whether his decision be in favor 
or against tlie claimant. And, to avoid misconstruction, 
the last clause of the fifth section of said act, which au- 
thorizes the person holding a warrant for the arrest or de- 
tection of a fugitive slave to summon to his aid a posse 
comitatus and which declared it to be the duty of all good 
citizens to assist him in its execution, ought to be so 
amended as to expressly limit the authority and duty in 
cases in which tliere shall be resistance, or danger of re- 
sistance or rescue. 

"4. That the laws for the suppression of the African 
slave trade, and especially those prohibiting the importa- 
tion of slaves into the United States, ought to be made ef- 
fectual, and ought to be thoroughly executed, and all other 
enactments necessary to those ends ought to be promptly 
made." 

On the 15th of January, 1861, Senator 
Clark (Abclitionist) moved to strike out all of 
Mr. Crittenden's proposition, after the pream- 
ble and the word Resolved^ and insert in lieu 
thereof the following: 

"That the provisions of the Constitution are ample for 
the preservation of the Union, and the protection of all 
the material interests of the country; that it needs to be 
obeyed rather than amended; and' that an extrication 
from the present dangers is to be looked for in strenuous 
efforts to preserve the peace, protect the public property, 
aud enforce the laws, rather than in guarantees for partic- 
ular difficulties, or concessions to unreasonable demand.s. 

"Jicsohed, That all attempts to dissolve the present 
Union, or overthrow or abandon the present ConsUtution, 
with the hope or expectation of constructing a new one, 
are dangerous, ilusory, and destructive; that in the opin- 
ion of the Senate of the United States, no such reconstruc- 
tion is practicable; and therefore, to the maintenance of 
the existing Union and Constitution, should be directed 
all the energies of all the departments of the Government, 
and the efforts of all good citizens." 

The object of the introduction of that reso- 
lution was very plain: it was to kill Mr. Grit 
teuden's plan without taking a direct vote on 
it. Mr. Clark's motion prevailed by the follow- 
ing vote: 

ATES. 



Anthony, 

Baker, 

Bingham, 

Chandler, 

Clark, 

Collamer, 

Dixon, 

Doolittle, 



Durkee, 

Fessenden, 

Foote, 

Foster, 

Grimes, 

Hale, 

Ilarlan, 

King, 



Seward, 

Simmons, 

Sumner, 

Ten Eyck, 

Trumbull, 

Wade, 

■Wilkinson, 

Wilson, 



25. — All Republican: 

NAYS. 

Bayard, Green, Powell, 

Bigler, Lane, Pugh, 

Bragg, Latham, Rice, 

Rright, Mason, Saulsbury, 

Clingman, Nicholson, Sebastian, 

Crittenden, Pearce, 

Fitch, Polk, 

~'i- — All Democrats and Americans. 

Mr. Crittenden's proposition was thus de- 
feated for the present. At a subsequent hour 
of the same day, Senator Cameron, who had 
voted for the Clark amendment, moved a re- 
consideration of the vote by which the Crittcn- 



136 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



den proposition was killed. The vote on this 

motion was not taken until the 18th of January, 

1861. The following was the result: (Page, 
443.) 

"TEAS. 

Bayard, Gwiu, Pearce, 

Eigler, Hunter, Polk, 

Bragg. Johnson of Ark., Powell, 

Bright, Johnson of Teim,, Pugh, 

Clingman, Kennedy, Kice, 

Crittenden, Lane, " Saulsbiiry, 

Douglas, Latham, .Sebastian, 

Fitch, Mason, Slidell.— 27. 

Green, Nicholson, 



Anthony, 

Baker, 

Bingham, 

Cameron, 

Chandler, 

Clark, 

Collamer, 

Dixon, 



Doolittle, 

Fessenden, 

Foote, 

Foster, 

Grimes, 

Hale, 

Harlan, 

King, 



Seward, 
Simmons, 
Summner, 
Ten Eyck, 
Wade, 
AVigfall, 
Wilkinson 
Wilson.— 24. 



It will be seen that Mr. Cameron voted 
against his own proposition. The motion to 
reconsider having prevailed, the question then 
was on agreeing to Mr. Clark's substitute for 
the Crittenden plan. The final vote was not 
taken, on agreeing directly to the Crittenflen 
proposition, until the 3d of March, the day pre- 
ceding the close of the Congress and the inau- 
guration of Mr. Lincoln. The Clark amend- 
ment was first disposed of: the debate preceding 
the vote on which we give: 

>Ir. Clark — "It might be espected, as I offered that 
substitute, that I would say something in its supjiort ; but, 
as the session is drawing so near a close, though I am 
prepared, I shall waive the opportunity, and let the vote 
betaken. 

Mr. Wilson — "We have voted on that several times, 
and I suggest that it be withdrawn, and let us vote di- 
rectly on the resolutions. 

The Presiding Officer — "It cannot be withdrawn, the 
yeas and nays having been ordered . 

"The Secretary proceeded to call the roll. 

Mr. Anthony (when his name was called) — "Without 
any reference to the merits of this amendment, I shall 
vote against it for the purpose of allowing the Senator 
from Kentucky to obtain a vote on his resolutions. I vote 
nay. 

Mr. Baker (when his name was called) — "Without re- 
terence to the merits of this amendment, I shall vote 
against it in order to get an opportunity to vote against 
the resolution of the Senator from Kentucky. 

"The result was announced — yeas 14, nays 22, as follows: 

"yeas. 



Bingham, 


Fessenden, 


Sumner, 


Chandler, 


Foote, 


Trumbull, 


Clark, 


Harlan, 


Wade, 


Doolittle, 


King, 


Wilkinson 


Durkee, 


Morrill, 

NATS. 




Anthony, 


Foster, 


>[ason. 


Baker, 


Gwin, 


Nicholson, 


Bayard, 


Hunter, 


Polk, 



Bigler, Johnson, of Teun. Pugh, 

Bright, Kennedy, Rice, 

Crittenden, Lane, Sebastian, 

Dixon, Latham, Ten Eyck— 22. 
Douglas, 

So Mr. Clark's amendment was rejected. 
(Page 1404. 

The question then recurred on adopting the 
Crittenden plan of compromise. It was de- 
feated by the following vote: (Page 1405.) 

TEAS. 

Bayard, Johnson, of Tenn. Polk, 

Bigler, Kennedy, Pugh, 



Lane, 


Rice, 


Latham, 


Sebastian, 


Mason, 


Thomson, 


Nicholson, 


M'igfall.— 19 


NATS. 




Fessenden, 


Sumner. 


Foote, 


Ten Eyck, 


Foster, 


Trumbull, 


Grimes, 


Wade, 


Harlan, 


Wilkinson. 


King, 


Wilsou— 20. 


Mairill, 





Bright, 

Crittenden, 

Douglas, 

Gwin, 

Hunter, 

Anthouy, 

Bingham, 

Chandler, 

Clark, 

Dixon, 

Doolittle, 

Durkee, 

Of the nineteen who voted yea^ seventen 
were Democrats and two Americans. The lat- 
ter were Senators Crittenden, of Kentucky, 
and Kennedy, of Maryland. The twenty who 
voted in the negative were all Republicans. 

In the House of Representatives. 

On the 27th of February, 1861, [seepage 
1261,] Mr. Clemens, of Virginia, proposed to 
the House of, Congress that the Crittenden 
compromise should be submitted to a vote of 
the people for adoption or rejection. He pro- 
posed the following joint resolution: 

"Whereas, The Union is in danger; and owing to the 
unhappy division existing in Congress, it would be diffi- 
cult, if not impossible, for that body to concur, in both its 
branches, by the requisite majority, so as to enable it 
either to adopt such measures of legislation, or to recom- 
mend to the States such amendments to the Constitution 
as are deemed necessarj' and proper to avert tliat danger; 
and 

"WuEREAS, In so great an emergency, the 
opinion and judgment of the people ought to 
be heard, and would be the best and surest 
guide to their representatives; therefore 

"■Jicsolved hy the Striate and House of Representatives 
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
That provisions ought to be made by law, without delay, 
for taking the sense of the people, and submitting to the 
vote the following resolutions (Crittenden's) as the basis 
for the final and permanent settlement of those disputes 
that now disturb the peace of the country and threaten 
the existence of the Union." 

[Here followed Mr. Crittenden's resolutions. 
The proposition of Mr. Clemens was reject- 
ed by the following vote: yeas 80, uays 113. 



Adrian, D, Florence, D, 

Anderson, W.C. AmFourke, D, 



Avery, D. 
Barr, D. 
Barrett, D. 
Babcock, D. 
Boteler, Am. 
Bouligney, Am. 
Brabson, Am. 
Branch, D. 
Briggs, Am. 
Bristow, Am. 
Brown, D. 
Burch, D. 
Burnett, D. 
Clark, H. F. D. 
Clark, J. B. D. 
Cochrane,John, ] 
Cox, D. 

Craig, James, D. 
Burton, D. 
Craig, D, 
Davis, J, G, D, 
DeJarnette, D. 
Dlmmick, D. 
Edmundson, D. 
English, D. 



Garnette, D. 
Gilmer, Am. 
Hamilton, D. 



Moore, T, Am . 
Morris, I, N, D. 
Nelson, Am. 
NiWack, D. 
Noell, D. 



Harris. J, M, Am. Peyton, D. 
Harris, T. J, D. Phelps, D. 
Hatton, Am. Pryor, D. 

IIolman,D. Quarles, Am. 

Howard, William, DRiggs, D.; 
Hughes, D. Robinson, J. C, D. 

Jenkins, D. Rust, D. 

Kunkel, D. Sickles, D. 

Larahee, D. Simms, D. 

Leach, J, M, Am. Smith, William, D 



Leake, D. 
Logan, D . 
Maclay, D. 
.Mallorry, Am. 
Martin, C, D, D. 
Martin, E, S, D. 
Maynard, Am. 
McClernard, D. 
McKentey,D. 
Millson, D. 
Montgomery, D. 
Laban, Am. 



80 — Democrats, 61; Americans, 19. 



Smith, W, H.N, Am 
Stevenson, D. 
Stewart, J, A, D, 
Stokes, Am . 
Stout, D. 
Thomas, D. 
Tallandigham, D. 
Vance, Am. 
Welister, Am. 
Wuitney, D. 
Winslow, D. 
Woodson, D. 
Wright, D 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



137 



C. F. Adams, R. Foster, R. 

Aldrioh, K. Frank, R. 

Alley, R. French, R. 

Asliley, R. Gooch, R. 

Babbett,R. Graham, R. 

Roale, R. , Grow, R. 

Bingham, R. Hale, R. 

Blair, R. Hall, R. 

Blake, R. irelmick, R. 

Brayton, R. Hickman, R. 

Buffington, R. Hinilman, D. 

Biirlingame, R. Hoard, R. 



Pettit, R. 
I'orter, R. 
Potter, R. 
Pottle, R. 
E. R. Reynolds, R. 
Rice, R. 
C. Robinson, R. 
Royce, R . 
J^cranton, R. 
i^odgwick, R. 
Sherman, R. 
Somes, R 



Burnham, R. W. A. Howard, R.Spaulding, R. 

Butterfield, R. Humiihrey, R. Spinner, R. 

Camiibell, R. Hutchins, R. Stanton, R. 

Carey, R. Irvine, R. Stevens, R. 

Carter, R. Junkin. R. "W. Stewart, R. 

Case, R. F. W. Kellog, R. Scratton, R. 

Coburn, R. W. Kellog, R. Tappan, R. 

C. B. Cochrane, R-Kenyon, R. Thayor, R. 

Colfax, R. Kilgore, R. Theaker, R. 

Conkling, R. Killinger, R. Tompkins, R. 

Conway, R. DeWitt C. Leach, RTrain, R. 

Cerwin, R. Lee, R. Trimble, R. 

Covode, R. Longnecker, R. Yandover, ]{. 

TV. H. Davis, A'n.Loomis, R. A' an Wyck, R. 

Dawes, R. Lovejoy, R. Terree, R, 

Del.ano, R. Marston, R. Wade, R. 

Dnell, R. McKean, R. AValuron. R. 

Dana, R. McKnight, R. Walton. R. 

EdgertoD, R. McPherson, R. C. C. Washbiirne,R 

Edwards, R. Morehead, R. R.B. Wasliburne,R 

Elliot, R. Morrill, R. Wells, R. 

Ely, ft. iMorse, R. Wilson, R. 

Etheridge, A"n. Nixon, R. Windham, R. 

Farnswurth, R. Olin, R. Wood, R. 

Fenton, R. Palmer, R. Woodruff. R. 

Ferry, R. Perry, R. 
113. Republicans, 110; Americans, 2; Democrats, 1. 

Such was the recorded action of the two 
houses of Congress, at the most critical and 
momentous period of our history, on a measure 
that would have saved us from civil war bad 
the representatives of the party that had just 
been elected to power adopted it in season. 

It is denied by some of the leaders and 
presses of the Republican party, that such 
would have been the result of the adoption by 
Congress of the Crjttenden Compromise; but 
they produce no i^roof to sustain their asser- 
tion. On the other hand, we have as high tes- 
timony as could be desired or needed, to show 
that had the Crittenden Compromise been 
adopted in season, it would have saved the 
country from civil war. 

Senator Douglas, on the 3d of January, 1S61 
speaking of liis own plan of adjustment. Avhich 
he had introduced'into the Senate, said: ( See 
Appendix Con. Globe, 1860, 1861, page 41.) 

"I believe this (his own plan] to be a fair basis of amica- 
ble adjustment. If you of the Republican side are not 
willingto accept this, nor the proposition of the Senator 
from Kentucky, Mr. Crittenden, pray, teU us what you 
are willing to do. I address the inquiry to the Pepubli- 
alone, for the reason that in the Committee of Thirteen, a 
few days ago, every member from the South, including 
those from the cotton States, (Messrs. Toombs and Davis,) 
expressed their readiness to accept the proposition ot my 
venerable fiieiid from Kentucky, Mr. Crittenden, as a 
FIXAL SETTLKMEXT of the Controversy, if tendered and sus- 
tained by Vie Fiepuhlican members. Hence, the sole re- 
sponsibility of mir disagreement and the o.nly difficulty 
in theway of an amicable adjustment j'stoiWiWic REPUB- 
LICAN PARTY." 

When Mr. Douglas made that speech, he 

made it in presence and in the hearing of Jeff. 

Davis and Toombs, and other Southern Sena- 

10 



tors, except those from South Carolina, who 
had retired from Congress; and no one denied 
the truth of his statement. Nor did any of the 
Republican members of the Committee of Thir- 
teen deny its truthfulness. They must, there- 
fore, all be taken as having concurred in its 
correctness, viz: that the Southern Senators 
would have received the Crittenden plan, if 
tendered and sustained by the Republican mem- 
bers, as a final settlement of the slavery con- 
troversy; and, that therefore, the only difficul- 
ty in the way of an amicable adjustment was 
with the Republican party, and on it would 
rest the sole responsibility of the disagreement 
and its consequent horrors of civil war. 

But there is other proof. On the 7th of Jan- 
uary, 1861, Mr. Toombs made a speech (seep. 
270) in which he corroborated the statement of 
Mr. Douglas, so far as he was concerned. He 
said: 

"But, although I insist upon this perfect equality intho 
territories, yet when it was proposed, as I understand the 
Senator from Kentucky now proposes, that the line of 36 
deg. 30 niin. shall be extended acknowledging and pro- 
tecting our property on the south side of that line, for the 
sake of peace— permanent peace— I said to the Committee 
of Thirteen, and I say here, that, with other satisfactory 
provisions, I would accept it. * * I am willing, how- 
ever, to take the proposition of the Senator, as it was un- 
derstood in committee, putting the North and the South 
on the same ground, prohibiting slavery on one side, ac- 
knowleding slavery and protecting it on the other, and 
applying that to all future acquisitions, so that the whole 
continent to the North Pole shall be settled upon the one 
rule, and to the Sou^h Pole under the other." 

But that is not all. By reference to the same 
Congressional Glolc, part 2, page I SOU. will 
be found a speech made by Mr. Pugh, on the 
3d of March, 1861. In the course of that 
speech, Mr. Pugh said: 

"The Crittenden proposition has been indorsed by the 
almost unanimous vote of the Legislature of Kentucky. 
It has been indorsed by the Legislature of the noble old 
Commonwealth of Yirginia. It has been petitioned for by 
a larger number of electors of the United States than any 
proposition that was ever before Congress. I believe in 
my heart to-day that it would carry an overwhelming ma- 
jority of the people of my State— ay, sir, and of nearly 
every other State in the Union. Before the Senators from 
the State of Mississippi left this Chamber, I heard one of 
them, ivho now assumes, at .'east, to be President of the 
Southern Confederacy, jiropose to accept it and to maititain 
the Union if that proposition coidd receive the vote it ought 
to receive from the other side of the Chamber. Therefore, 
of all your propositions, of all your amendments, knowing 
as I do, and knowing (hat the historian will write it down, 
at any time before the \st of January, a two-thirds vote 
for the Crittenden Resolutions in this Chamber would have 
saved every State in the Union but South Carolina." 

Mr. Pugh said that in the presence and in 
the hearing of Republican Senators, and no 
one denied the truth ot his assertion. Mr. 
Douglas was present and followed Mr. Pugh 
in a speech, remarking: (Page 1391.) 

"The Senator has said that if the Crittenden Proposition 
could have passed early in the session, it would have saved 
all tha States except South Carolina. I firmly believe it 
would. While the Crittenden Proposition was not in ac- 
cordance with my cherished views, I avowed my readiness 
and eagerness to .accept it, in order to save the Union, if 
vre could unite upon it. No man has labored harder than 
I to get it passed. lean confirm the Senator's declara- 
tion, that Senator Davis himself, when on the Committee 
of Thirteen, was ready, at all times, to compromise on the 
Crittenden Proposition, I will go further, and say 'that 
Mr. Toombs was also." 



138 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



We tkink nothing could be more conclusive 
than that testimony, unless the actual experi- 
ment itself, oy the adoption of the plan itself 
and a trial under it. which the Republican 
members would not pfrmit Senator Critten- 
den's opinion as to the effect the adoption of 
his plan would have had, was expressed by him, 
in a letter to Larz Anderson, Esq., of Cincin- 
nati, dated Frankfort, March 27, 1861, in 
which he said: 

"Those resolutions were proiiosod ia the true spirit of 
compromise, a.ul with tlie hope of preserving or restoring 
to the country peiice and union. They were the result of 
the joint labiVs of, and consultation with friends, having 
the same object in view; and 1 bflieve if those measures 
thus ofl'eied liad been, at a suitable time, promptly adopt- 
ed by the Congress of the United States, it would have 
checked t/ie progress nf the rebellion and revolution and 
SAVKD THE VA^JOlX." 

Some of the leaders finding the proof against 
their party to be so conclusive and overwhelm- 
ing, endeavor to avoid its force by stating that, 
had the Southrrn Senators remained in their 
seats and voted, the Crittenden plan of Com- 
promise would have passed Congress. That is 
not true. Under no circumstances could it 
have j)assed the House, which was Republican. 
With a full Senate, and every Senator present 
and voting, it would have required forty-four 
votes to pass the Crittenden Compromise. being 
a two-thirds vote, which is required on amend- 
ments to the Constitution. Had the thirty 
Senators from the Slave States been present 
and voted, they, with the Pen Democrats from 
the Free States, would have made but forty, 
■which would not have been enough by four 
votes. It is not true, therefore, that had the 
Southern Senators remained in their seats and 
voted, the Crittenden Compromise would have 
passed the Senate even. As we have already 
remarked, the House being Republican, it 
could not have received a majority vote in that 
body, let alone a two thirds vote. 

But unanimity of opinion was necessary to 
have secured the success of the Crittenden plan 
with the states, had it even passed Congress. 
The Southern Senators, in the Committee of 
Thirteen, felt the necessity of that unanimity, 
aud therefore it was that Mr. Douglas said, 
that "every member from the South, including 
those from the Cotton States. (Messrs. Toombs 
and Davis, ) expressed their readiness to ac- 
cept the Crittenden Compromise as a final 
settlement of the controversy, if tendered 

AND SUSTAINED BY THE REPUBLICANS." If 

not tendered and sustained by the Republi- 
cans, the Southern Senators, as did everybody 
else, knew that the adoption, by Congress, of 
the Crittenden Compromise, would, in the end, 
be perfectly nu-itory, as it; would be defeated 
in the State Legislatures by the Republicans. 
.Had it been tendered and sustained by the 
Republican members of Congress, the Southern 
people would have had a strong assurance, 
amounting almost to certainty, of its success 
in the State Legislatures; for the two great 
parties would then have been for it. But the 
managing, leading Republicans wanted no com- 
promise at all, and least of all did they desire 



any that would be acceptable to the South. — 
They wanted a disruption of the Union, and 
civil war, in order to overthrow slavery. The 
testimony of Mr. Douglas on that point is over- 
whelming. In a letter to S. S. Hayes, Esq., of 
Illinois, he said: 

"Washingiox, December 2'J, 1860. 

"My DevrSir: * * * You will have receiv- 
ed my proposed amendments to the Constitution before you 
receive this. Tlie South woidd lahemy proposition if the 
Bepublicans would ac/ree to it. But the extreme North 
and South hold off, and are precipitating the country into 
revolution and civil war. 

"While 1 can do no act which recognizes or countenances 
the doctrine of secession, my policy is peace, aud I will not 
consider the question of war until every elfort has been 
made for peace, and all hope shall have vanished. When 
that time conies, if unfortunately it shall come, I will then 
do what it becomes an American Senator to do on the then 
state of facts*, Many of the Republican leaders desire a 
disioli'lion nf the Union, and URoe w.\R .\s A jieaxs of ac- 
c'0MPI,I.^^u^(i PiisuxioN; while others are Union men in good 
faitli. We have now reached a point where a cojiPROiMlsE 
on the basis of .MUTUAL concession, or cisu.nion and war, 
are INEVITABLE. I prefer a fair and just compromise. 
I shall make a speech in a few days. S. A. DOUGLAS. 

"S. S. ILlTES, Esii." 

On tke same day Mr. Douglas addressed a 
letter of like import to the Hon. John Taylor, 
of New York. To that gentleman, Mr. Doug- 
las wrote: 

"Washington, Dec. 29, 1860. 

"My Dear Sir: — Pressure of business has prevented an 
earlier acknowledgment of your kind letter. The pros- 
pects of our country are ).'loomy indeed, but I do not de- 
spair of the Republic. We are now drifting rapidly into 
civil war, which must end in disunion. This can only be 
prevented by amendments to the Constitution, which will 
take the slavery question out of Congress, a-7id put an end 
to the strife. Whether this can be done ddpends upon 
THE Kkpublicans. Many of their leaders desire disunion 
on party grounds, and here is the difficulty. God grant 
us a safe deliverance is my prayer. 

"Very truly your friend, 

"S. A. DOUGLAS. 

"lion. John Taylor." 

Mr. Douglas made his speech four or five 
days after the date of that letter, in which he 
.ivowcd his readiness and eagerness to accept 
the Crittenden Compromise in order to save the 
Union; thereby endorsing it as "a fair and 
just compromise." But there were too many 
Republican leaders, who desired a dissolution 
of the Union, and urged war as a means of 
accomplishing disunion, to permit either Mr. 
Douglas' plan or Mr. Crittenden's plan, or the 
Peace Conference plan to pass; and so the 
country was precipitated into civil war. 

Early in February, 1861, Mr. Douglas, in a 
letter to the editors of the Memphis Appeal, 
drew more fully the portrait of the managing 
Republicans. He said: 

"Washington, February 2, 1801. 
"Messrs. Editors: * * * You must remember that 
there are disunionists among the party leaders at the North 
as well as at the South, men' whose hostility to slavery is 
stronger than their fidelity to the Constitution, and who 
believe that the disruption of the Union would draw after 
it, as an inevitable consequence, civil war, servile insur- 
rection, and, liually, the utter extermination of slavery in 
all the Southern States. They are bold, daring, deter- 
mined men; and believing, as they do, tliiit the Constitu- 
tion of the United States is the great bulwark of slavery 
on this continent, aud that the disru|)tion of the American 
Union involves the inevitable destruction of slavery, and 
is an inseperable necessity to the attainment of that end, 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



139 



they are determined to accomplish their iiaramoiint oliject 
by any means within their jiowci. 

"For these reasons the Northern Disunionists, like tlio 
Disunionists of the South, are violently opposed to all 
compromises or constitutional amendments, or efforts at 
conciliation, whereby peace should be restored and the 
Union preserved. They ace striving to break up the 
Union under the pretence of unbounded devotion to it. — 
They are struggling to overthrow the Constitution, while 
professing undying attachment to it, anil a willlngiiese to 
make any sacrifice to maintain it. Tliey are trying to 
)dunge the country into civil war as the surest means of 
destroying the Union, upon the plea of enforcing the laws 
and protecting the public property. If they can defeat 
every kind of adjustment or compromise, by which the 
points at issue may be satisfactorily settled, and keep up 
the irritation, so as to induce the Border States to follow 
the Cotton .States, they will feel ceitain of the accomplish- 
ment of their ultimate designs. 

"Nothing will gratify them so much, or contribute so 
eflectually to their success, as the Secession of Tennessee 
and the Border States. Every State that withdraws from 
the Union increases the relative power of Northern Abo- 
litionists to defeat a satisfactory adjustment, and bring on 
a war which, sooner or later, must end in final separation 
and recognition of the independence of the two contend- 
ing sections." 

That Mr. Douglas drew a correct portrait of 
tlie managers of the Republican party is prov- 
ed by the letter written by Senator Chandler, 
of Michigan, to Austin Blair, then Governor 
of that State. This letter was written a few 
days after the date of Senator Douglas's letter 
to the editor of the Memphis Api^cal. Here 
it is: 

"Washixgto.v, Feb. 11, ISGl. 

"Mv De.vr Gover>-or:— Governor Bingham and myself 
telegraphed to you on Saturday, at the request of Massa- 
chusetts and New York, to send delegates to the Peace or 
Compromise. Congress. They admit that We were right 
and they wore wrong; that no Republican State should 
havesent delegates; bnt they arehere and can't get awav. 
Ohio, Indiana and Rhode Island are caving in, and there is 
some danger of Illinois, and now they beg us, for God's 
sake, to come to their I'escue and save the Republican par- 
ty from rupture. I hope you will send stiff-backed men 
or none. The wholethingwasgottcn up against my juilg- 
ment and advice, and will end in thin fmoke. Still, I 
hope, as a matter of courtesy to some of our erring breth- 
ren, that ycu will send the delegates. 

"Truly your friend, Z. CII.VXDLluR . 

"His Excellency AusTix Blais. 

"P. S.— Some of the Mnnufocturing States think that 
a fight would be awful. Without a little blood-letting 
this Union will not, in my estimation, bo worth a curse." 

That letter is full of point. It .jpens to the 
public gaze the motives upon which tlic Repub- 
lican managirs acted. Virginia had solicited 
a conference of the states to see if some plan 
could not be devised and agreed upon, to save 
the Union and prevent civil war. Sincere pat- 
riots were anxious to save the Border States — 
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and 
Missouri, together with North Carolina and 
Tennessee — and therefore favored the assem- 
bly of this Peace Conference. The Republican 
managers were opposed to it Massachusetts 
and iNew York sent delegates, but when the 
plan of the Republican managers was explained 



to them, they repented of their haste, acknowl- 
edged their error, admitted that the managers 
were right and they wrong, and that no Republi- 
can state should have sent delegates. They, 
therefore begged for God's sake, for theGovernor 
of Michigan to come to the rescue, and save the 
Republican party— not the Union— from rup- 
ture. The Governor was requested to send 
stiff backed men or none — none who were 
likely to favor any plan of conciliation. In the 
opinion of Chandler, the Union would not be 
worth a curse, without a little blood letting. 

As far back as December 23, 1860, Mr. 
Toombs issued an address to his constituents, 
of Georgia, in which he uys, speaking of the 
Crittenden Compromise: 

"A vote was taken in the Committee of Thirteen on 
amendments to the Constitution, proposed by the Hon. 
John J. Crittenden, and each and all of them were voted 
against harmoniously by the Black Republican members 
of the Committee. In addition to these facts, a majority 
of the Black Republican members of the Committee (fe- 
dared distinctly that they had no tjiiaranties to offer, 
which w:i.s silently acquiesced in by the other members." 

Mr. Toombs afterward, January 7, 1861, 
made his speech in the Senate, in which he 
said he would accept the Crittenden Compro- 
mise as a final settlement of the slavery ques- 
tion. But, as Senator Hale, a leading Repub- 
tican, said, on the floor of the Senate, when 
Mr. Crittenden presented his plan to the Sen- 
ate, the controversy was not to be settled by 
Congress. The Republican managers did not 
mean to permit it to be settled there. They 
wanted, in the language of Senator Douglas, 
a disruption of the Union, believing a 
disruption "would draw after it, as an inevita- 
ble consequence, civil war. servile insurrec- 
tions, and, finally, the utter extermination of 
slavery in all the Southern states." They are 
the great criminals upon whose backs the scor- 
pion whips of a duped and outraged people 
should be applied. 

But for these men, we might have continued 
a united and prosperous people. Their devil- 
ish spirit demanded war, blood-letting, and the 
land has been gorged with the blood "of breth- 
ren, shed by the hands of brotliers. Desola- 
tion and death, humiliation and tears and sor- 
row, have been our portion since these Repub- 
lican managers have had the direction of public 
affairs at Washington. They are the cabal that 
have controlled the President from the start. — 
To what condition the country will be reduced 
by the time their power shall cease, on the re- 
tirement of Mr. Lincoln, can be imagined from 
its present deplorable state, under their man- 
ipulatation. All our troubles might have been 
avoided but for their determination that there 
should be xo comprojiise. What a price the 
country is paying for the Abolition whistle! 



140 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



CHAPTER XXIII.i 

KEPUBIJCANS OBSTINATE AND REFUSE TO COM- 
PROMISE. 

The Conduct of the AboIitioEists in the Wisconsin Legis- 
lature. ..Kadical Reasons for not Compromising. ..Xho 
Chicago Platform Good Enough for th« Radicals... 
Tenacity of the \Vouldu't-Yi<'ia-An-Irichers...Efi'ort of 
Democrats to send Commissioners to llie Comi^iromiso 
Congress. ..Republicans Claim to have " .Struggled Man- 
fully against the United Democracy "...Carl t^cUurz and 
'• Our Side "...Ropublicaus of Sauk City opposed to Com- 
rromisc.A Candid Admission. ..Edward Everett on 
Compromise. ..Lord Brougham on Coercion. ..Plan of 
Adjustment by ihe Peace Congress... Franklin's Substi- 
tute..." New York Post" on Effect... Greeley against 
Compromi3e...Geueral Conclusions, Ac. 

WISCONSIN LEGISLATURE ON COMPROMISE. 

In addition to the foregoing, wc have sorted 
out the following from the proceedings of the 
Wisconsin Legislature, as samples of the gen- 
eral course of the Republicans, and as showing 
their ^en«raZ purposes and designs. AVith this 
yjQ consider the •'record complete." 

In the Senate of Wisconsin, Jan. 25th, 1861, 
the following resolution was passed: 

^'■Resolved, {if the Assembly concur^) That 
the following resolution, reported by a minor- 
ity of the select committee of 33 in the Con- 
gress of the United StateS; and signed by 
Messrs. Tappan of New Hampshire, and AVash- 
burn of Wisconsin, reflects the judgment and 
sentiments of the Legislature of Wisconsin, 
and that its views and patriotic conclusions 
should be adequate to restore permanent peace 
and prosperity to our glorious Republic. 

''■Resolved. That the provisions of the Con- 
stitution are ample for the preservation of the 
Union; and the protectioc of all the material 
interests of the country; that it needs to be 
obeyed rather than amended; and that extrica- 
tion from present difficulties should be looked 
for in efforts to protect and preserve the public 
property, and the enforcement of the laws, 
r. ther than in new guaranties for particular 
interests or compromises and concessions of 
unreasonable demands." 

Mr. Bradford, (Rep.) introduced the fol- 
lowing in the Assembly: 

^'Resolved, That we, as the representatives 
of the people of Wisconsin, are opposed to 
each and all the schemes of compromise which 
jhave been proposed or may hereafter be devised 
recognizing slavery as in accordance with the 
Constitution, or, in any way tending to extend, 
diffuse or perpetuate so peculiar and odious an 
institution, and which has been well said to be 
"the sum of all villainies." 

Mr. Keogii (Dem.) offered the following, 
[which was intended to be a gentle reminder 
to the Chairman of the Committee on Federal 
Relations, (Mr. Spooner, now Lieutenant 
Oovernor,) who managed to have all peace 



resolutions referred to his Committee, where 
they were kept, as was believed, to prevent 
action:] 

'■'•Resolved, That the Committee on Federal 
Relations be instructed to report within one 
week on the preamble and resolutions No. 8, 
A., referred to them on yesterday, as to the 
policy or impolicy of the action therein pro- 
posed, and also whether the state of Wisconsin 
ought or ought not, in the opinion of said Com- 
mittee, take any action in reference to the dan- 
gers that now threaten our Union, and wheth- 
er, if any action is deemed necessary, it 
should be pacificatory first, before war- 
like, or whether it is our policy as a state to 
declare against all concessions, and for blood 
and strife. 

'■^Resolved, That the 'poet,' in giving the 
history of our early strife with the mother 
country, and the object of our forefathers in 
reference to the white and black man's rights, 
&c., expresses just and wise sentiments, as fol- 
lows; 

" 'The Tableaux change, and Brother J. proposes 
To 'boot' the King, and ring bis soldiers' noses! 
Now, George this 'insult' with gallant scorn resented, 
(Though 'tis due to state he afterwards repented;) 
And, of course, a long and sanguinary war ensued. 
And brother's hands with brother's blood imbued! 
Those were the times, as their history now unfolds. 
That friccassied men's bodies-^and tried their souls! 
Thai, we had 'Tragedians,' all first class 'Stars,' 
Who, true to heroic life, delineated Mars; 
No phosphorous lightning — no sheet iron thunder! 
Then shook, the Thespian Temple with false wonder! 
No incandescent ilash — no pyrotecnic blaze! 
Such as school boj's muster in nocturnal plays; 
No 'fancy fencing, with stub-shod Iron swords — 
No ratan muskets flourished on those 'Boards!' 
But the real 'Old Flint Lock' and Damascus Steel, 
Made the 'claret' flow, and flesh and mnscle fed! 
And on every bloody field the patriots' bayonets 
Pierc'd the tinseled helmets of Gen'ral and Brevets! 
Nor were our fathers figliting,like hypocrites and knaves, 
Vndfr pretense of giving 'freedom' to their slaves! 
Nor were they guilty, in their 'Bill of vested rights,' 
Of classing Ethiopians with their brother whites! 
They left to God the gen'ral purpose of his plan. 
To apportion as He will'd the proper 'Rights of Man!' 
Of which self-gov'meut— more jjotent than the rest — 
Each prevailing R.ice make laws that suit them best. 
Since God himself widely hath partition'd races — 
Assigned to each their xiqyrior and inferior places — 
What right hath mortals to change His holy plan, 
And legislate the inferior to the superior man?' " 

On the 26th of January, the propositions of 
Virginia for a Peace Congress, were transmit- 
ted to the Legislature by Governor Randall. 
These propositions were conceived in a worthy 
spirit, and evidently showed an earnestness to 
compromise and save blood shed. They were 
imploring but not dictatorial. They were 
treated with general respect, by some Repub- 
licans, but evidently detested and scorned by 
the mass of the party. The Democracy to a 
man were in favor of immediate action, and a 
favorable response. For days the question was 
argued, in various forms, in both Houses, and 
finally, by the schemes of Republican party 
leaders, the propcsition to send Commissioners 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK. 



141 



was defeated. Below we present some of the 
opinions expressed in the course of debate by 
leading Republicans, though it is due to state 
that some Republicans appeared to honestly 
favor action: 

"Senator Hutchison, (Rep.) believed that 
we should meet with the representatives of \''ir- 
ginia around the family altar. There is never 
danger to him whose cause is just, meeting 
with his adversary. It was at tirst thought 
that the delegation in Congress should act as 
commissioners, but upon further reflection, 
and as it was for a specific purpose, it was 
thought better to send special commissiouers 
He inserted Mr. Washburne's nauic, as he had 
been on the committee of 33, and it might be 
gratifying to have his action endorsed. 

"Senator Bartlett, (Rep,) thouglit that 
slavery was sufficiently guarantied by the Con- 
stitution in the State of Virginia. If we ap- 
point a committee in accordance with the Vir- 
ginia resolutions we meet with her commis- 
sioners ou the basis that they present. As a 
Republican party we debauch ourselves if we 
place ourselves on the record, as these resolu- 
tions require. It's worse than folly to make a 
mere show of amity by sending commissioners 
to Washington, bound by instructions not to 
grant the demands of the South, and nothing 
but an insult to those with whom we treat. If 
wc were prepared to admit that south of 36 
deg. 30 min. should be given up to slavery and 
that it should be perpetual, then indeed might 
we consistently t^^-eat. The Senator from the 
30th, Hutchinson, thinks it an alarming thing 
that we cannot meet the Southern States round 
the family altar, but it is true that at this time 
they are engaged in acts of treason and he 
thought the resolutions showed a lack of moral 
courage, and he as a Republican, did not wish 
to be put in such an anamolous position as they 
would place him in. Moral courage, sir, is 
that kind of courage which enables a man to 
take his sfa.ul on principle and do right. This 
is what alone can save the country in the pres- 
ent crisis. We cannot look to the shattered 
columns of the Democracy of the North for 
salvation. Nothing but firmness and integrity 
on the part of the Republicans will carry the 
country safely through the present crisis. No 
good can arise from such a conference as is 
proposed. 

"There can be no moral influence in the 
course advocated by Senator Hntchinson as it 
bears a lie on its face. We should also look to 
the expense of this commission, and believing 
that no good can result from the expense, I 
cannot go in for it. He that is wasteful of the 
people's money is also wasteful of principle." 

February 1, '61, the following action was 
had in the Senate, on the Commissioner propo- 
sition: 

"Senator Gill then spoke against the adop- 
tion of Senator Hutchinson's amendment: He 
was tired of hearing of Union savers. Too 



many eulogies had already been pronounced on 
such men as Alexander 11. Stevens, of Geor- 
gia. He reiterated at length that the Virginia 
resolutions called for Commissioners from this 
state, with the words explicitly stating that 
they were required to deliberate on amend- 
ments to the Constitution, and if they went 
they would find themselves deluded and in a 
snare. 

"Senator Worthington followed in a pointed 
and deliberate argument against the appoint- 
ment of commissioners. He said that the posi- 
tion of Senator Gill was invulnerable, and that 
he very much doubted, from what he knew of 
the sentiments of some of the intended Com- 
missioners of their accepting the commission. 
He agreed with the remarks made by his col- 
league on the committee,. Senator Bartlett. 

"Senator Cole, as one of the committee ou 
Federal relations, was impelled by a full con- 
sideration of the Virginia resolution's, to vote 
for the amendment as amended. 

"Senator Joiner, in some brief and sensible 
remarks, stated his intention, notwithstanding 
the grand flourishes of some gentlemen to the 
contrary that he had heard during the argu- 
ment, of voting for the amendment. 

"The resolutions introduced by Senator 
Hutchinson, and as amended by Senator A^ii'- 
gin, were then adopted by 



A . T. Bennett, 

Cole, 

Cunning, 

Decker, 

Ugau, 

Bartlett, 

Bean, 

Geo. Bennett, 

Carey, 

Cox, 



ATES. 

Ferguson, 

Hutchinson, 

Joiner, 

Kingston, 

31a.\uu, 

N.lVS. 
Crane, 
Foot, 
Gill. 

HazcJton, 
Kelseii, 



Qnentin, 
Sweat, 
Sweet, 
Virgin — 14 . 



Montr/omery, 

Stewart, 

Vtley, 

Wurtli in^ton l-l . 



Kcpuljlicans in italic. 

"The Lieutenant Governor giving his vote in 
the affirmative, which occasioned much ap- 
plause. 

The Lieut. Governor (Rep.) was denounced 
by his party press for giving this casting vote. 

On the same day the following debate was 
had in the Assembly: 

"Mr. Rugee (Rep. J spoke in favor of his 
amendment, and was in favor of acting up to 
the requirements of the 21,000 majority in this 
state. He Avas satisfied that the Democratic 
party would not swallow the Pv.epublicau plat- 
form, and he could see no propriety in sending 
a Democrat among the Commissioners, unless 
he is willing to conform to the Republican 
platform. 

"Mr. C R. Johnson (Rep.) said the question 
used to be, 'Have we a Bourbon amongst us?' It 
might now be rendered, 'Have we a Republi- 
can party?' He believed the Republican party 
was a Union party. He was a Union man. Ho 
could not appreciate the expression, that 'in 
these revolutionary times it is ridiculous to 
talk of the Chicago platform' was not an ema- 
nation from a Republican breast. He was in 



142 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



favor of instruction if we must send commis- 
sioners. Mr. J. proceeded for some time to 
enforce his views, taking strong ground against 
this action. He went in for the Chicago plat- 
form. 

"Mr. I). H. Johnson, (Rep.,) thought it im- 
portant that we should have a free interchange 
of sentiment, with a view to a better under- 
standing. He was sorry to see a spirit of dis- 
appointment and opposition here. He alluded 
to the gentleman from Hock, [Mr. Graham, 
which brought that gentleman to his feet in ex- 
planation.] Mr. J. proceeded to discuss at 
considerable length the propriety of not in- 
cluding the Chicago platform in his action. 

"Mr. Rugee, (Rep.,) said if any Republican 
would show anything bad in the Chicago plat- 
form he would withdraw it. 

"Mr. D. II. Johnson rejoined. 

"Mr. Bradford, (Hen.,) said that he discov- 
ered that his Democratic friends were as calm 
as turtle doves, while many of the Republicans 
seemed to be trembling in their boots. [Laugh- 
ter.] He predicted that to send commissioners 
would end in a conventional bubble, and would 
explode, amounting to nothing. lie knew 
when Virginia asked anything she meant to 
have it or nothing. He was decidedly opposed 
to the proposition of sending commissioners. 
He cautioned the liepublicans ajainst leaving 
out the Eepublican jAatform If they did 
they would leave out manj' of the party. 

"Mr. Atwood, (Rep.) said that several gen- 
tlemen had endeavored to impress upon this 
House that they were Republicans. He believ- 
^ed that where he lived no one questioned his 
"Republicanism. This question was not one of 
party; it Avas not to advance Republicanism as 
such — it was to save our country, and party 
had nothing to do with it. He could meet the 
Democrats and act with them on this matter, 
and never stop to enquire whether they ever 
had a platform or not. In giving the "21,000 
majority," so much referred to here, we did 
not expect these dreadful realities -which now 
surround us. We must now act upon the facts 
and circumstances as they surround us. These 
commissioners could go to Washington and act 
independent of any other state. They would 
no dovibt act with reference to the sentiment of 
the people of the state as much as possible. He 
was opposed to any positive instructions, though 
he should haveno objection to have the commis- 
sioners required to communicate with the leg- 
islature. 

"Mr. Rugi,e again rejoined, taking strong 
ground in favor of sending the Chicago plat- 
form to Washington. 

"Mr. Graham, (Rep.) said ho Iiad intended 
to be content with a silent vote against this 
measure, but he could hardly sit still since so 
much had been said, and his proposition had 
been voted down. He believed the northern 
Democrats were as loyal to the constitution 
and government as the Republicans, and he 
should not object to see a Democrat appointed, 
if the commissioners should be raised. He 
should vote for Mr. Rugee's proposition to in- 
struct, /or the purpose of hilling the motion. — 



lie spoke against the idea that slaves are pro- 
perty. [Why not have raised this question on 
the Ripon speech before electing Judge Howe? 
— Reporter.] 

' 'Mr. Atwood said he respected the frankness 
of the gentleman from Rock in declaring he 
would go for the amendment to kill the propo- 
sition. He thanked him for that. He liked 
the Chicago platform as much as any one, but 
he could not consent to tack that and state 
constitutions on propositions of this kind. — 
He believed this move would do good. He be- 
lieved it would do good for a parley to be held. 
It could do no harm — itmighi do good." 

From the Assembly Debates on the 4th we 
take the following: 

"Mr. Dwight (Rep.) was at first in favor of 
sending commissioners, but the arguments he ^ 
had heard had convinced him of his error, and 
he was not ashamed to own it. He did not 
propose to get down on his knees when the 
South had a club over his head, and eat a 
'large piece of pumpkin pie.' His children 
were all girls, and therefore he could stand the 
war very well. He wished he was in the Chair, 
he would show the South a little of Old Jack- 
son. In short, he was opposed to all conces- 
sions and all compromise. 

"Mr. Lindsley (Rep.) was opposed to this 
commission. He believed we had already given 
the South an intimation of what we would do, 
and he was opposed to going any further. He 
would favor the submission of our personal 
liberty bill to a judicious committee, and if 
found to be unconstitutional, to repeal it, 
but he was opposed to meeting the South 
for any such purpose as this. Much as he 
loved peace and quiet he would willingly sac- 
rifice his life to abolish slavery. He loved the 
Union, and he would be willing to make any 
reasonable sacrifices to save it, but he would 
not vote for this resolution. 

"Mr. Spooner, (Rep ) was opposed to the 
amendment. He saw where the opposite side 
met the difficulty. They find it necessary to 
ignore the expressed will of the people. His 
constituents had instructed him not to back 
down in the least, and to yield nothing. So 
far as he was concerned, he should stand by 
his instructions. He could vote for no such 
propositions and go back to his constituents." 

A correspondent of the Milwaukee Sentinel 
(rep.) of February, said: 

"My sympathies on this occasion were all 
with the Republicans, who struggled manfully 
against the united Democracy., aided by mem- 
bers from their own ranks, to defeat this prop- 
osition; and who were finally overcome only by 
the casting vote of the Lieutenant Governor, 
who, representing the «7ioZe state, nevertheless 
preferred to vote with the six Republicans who 
favored the proposition, rather than the four- 
teen who opposed it. Vengeance is not mine." 

Carl Sciiurz was at Nsrwalk, Ohio, during 
this controversy. He, with Ch.ikdler, of 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



143 



Michigan, was opposed to compromise, and be- 
ievedthiit to send "stiff-backed Republicans.'' 
■who were opposed to it, as commiisioners, was 
the only way to prevent compromise, and Av/re 
the Rep uhli din party The following dispatch 
explains itself: 

"To Gov. Ilarnlall: 

"By Telegvaiih fruiii Xoewalk, Ohio, Feb. 1, 1S( 1. 
'"Appoint Commissioners to Washington con- 
ference — myself one, to strengthen our side. 
"CARL SCHURZ " 

The Republicans in various portions of the 
State soon began to act, and wire pullers 
pulled the strings to prevent compromise. A 
"Union" meeting was held by the Republi- 
cans of Sauk City, Sauk county, 'Wisconsin, in 
February, and from among their resolutions 
■we select the following: 

'■^Resolved, That we, as Republicans, will 
not submit to compromises at the sacrifice of 
principle." 

" There was a Brutus once, that would have broolcM 
The eternal devil, to keep his State in Rome, 
As easily as a King." — Julius Ctesar. 

No one doubts that Brutus had the courage 
to do much that he lacked the power. We find 
many here that would "brook the eternal 
deyil" to carry their points, but they would 
no doubt end where Brutus did. with the loss 
of liberty and power. AVith the following, 
from King Henry IVth, we will leave our 
readers to "heed or bleed." 

" A Peace is of the nature of a Conquest! 
For then hoth parties nobly are subdued, 
And neither party loser." 

A CANDID ADMISSION. 

The Milwaukee Sentinel, in Februar3^,lS61, 
made the following admission: 

"Had the election of last November resulted 
in favor of that party, [the Democracy,] we 
should have heard nothing of 'Secession;' no 
coAiplaints about 'Personal Liberty Laws;" no 
denunciation of Northern fanaticism; no talk 
of a 'Southern Confederacy.' South Carolina 
indeed, might have made more or less fuss, as 
usual; but she would have stood alone, and her 
fit would have soon passed over." 

This was very true, but the Democracy did 
not succeed; hence the necessity for compro- 
mise. 

EDWARD EVERETT ON COMPROMISE. 

A large and enthusiastic Union meeting was 
held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, February, 1861, 
at which the Crittenden proposition was en- 
dorsed unanimously. The following letter was 



read to the meeting from the Hon Edward 
Everett: 

"WAsniNGTON, Feb. 2, l!§iil-. 
'•My Dear Sir — I much regl'et that it is 
not in my [miuc— to be present at the meeting 
to b • hel I in F^.neuil Hall next Tuesday. I 
have yieldc'l. ai the sacrifice of personal con- 
venience, to the udvice and request that I would 
jiioloii;^ my stay at AVashington, with a view to 
conference with members of Csngiess and 
other persons from vaiious parts of the Union, 
who are uniting their counsels and efiTorts for 
its preservation. 

"The crisis is one of greater danger and im- 
portance than has ever before existed. Sis 
states have declared their separation from the 
Union, and the withdrawal of the seventh is a 
probable event. The course of the remaining 
Southern States will be decided in a few days. 
They are under opposing influences. A strong 
conservative sentiment binds them to the 
Union; a natural sympathy with the seceding 
states draws them in an opposite direction. 

"If they adhere to the Union there will be 
no insuperable difficulty in winning back the 
sister States, which have temporarily with- 
drawn from us, but if the border states are 
drawn into the Southern Confederacy the fate 
of the country is sealed. Instead of that 
palmy prosperity which has made us for two 
generations the envy of the civilized world, we 
shall plunge into the road to ruin. AVe must 
look forward to collision at home — fierce, 
bloody, deadly collision — not alone between 
the two great sections of the country, but be- 
tween neighboring States — town and counti-y, 
and embittered parties in the same city — and 
abroad we must submit to the loss of the rank 
we have hitherto sustained among the family of 
nations. Human nature is the same in all 
ages, and the future, now impending over our 
once happy country, may be read in the mourn- 
ful history of the Grecian and Italian repub- 
lics, and in the terrific annals of the French 
revolution. To expect to hold fifteen States in 
the Union by force is preposterous. The idea 
of a civil war, accompanied, as it would be, by 
a servile insurrection, is too monstrous to be 
entertained for a moment. If our sister states 
must leave us, in the name of heaven let them 
go in peace. I agree in the sentiment that the 
people alone can avert these dire calamities. 
Political leaders, however well disposed, are 
hampered by previous committals and control- 
led by their associates. The action of Con- 
gress, unless accelerated by an urgent impulse 
from the ultimate source of power, is too much 
impeded by the forms of legislation and tedi- 
ousness of debate. There is no hope from the 
political parties of the country — agencies un- 
happily too potent for mischief, but, in the 
present extremity, powerless for good, except 
by a generous sacrifice of all party views, in- 
terest and ambition to the public weal. 

"No; it is only by the loud, emphatic, unan- 
imous utterance of the voice of the people, 
that the danger can be averted. Let the cry go 
forth from Faneuil Hall, and ring through the 



144 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



lano. that the Union must and shall be pre- 
serreJ! (Great cheering.) 

'•Your friend and fellow citizen, 

'•KDWAKD EVEUETT." 

LORD BROUGHAM ON COEKCION. 

The venerable Lord Brougham, one of the 
■wisest and most conservative men of England, 
thus wrote on the 19th cf March, '61— a just 
rebuke to those who would sustain somjthing 
they have dubbed a Platform, and make ship- 
wreck of the Constitution and Union: 

"The alarm felt by all the friends of human 
improvement at the risk of disunion in Ameri- 
ca, are naturally uppermost in one's mind at 
the present time. How much it is to be wished 
that the contending parties in both Italy and 
America wonld take a leaf out of our books, 
and learn the wisdom os icell as virtue of com- 
2)roi/iise and mutual concessio?i.'" 

TLAN OF ADJUSTMENT ADOPTED BY THE 
PEACE CONGRESS. 

"Sec. 1. In all the pnsent territory of the 
United States, north of the parallel of thirty- 
six degrees thirty minutes of north latitude, 
involuntary servitude, except in punishment 
of crime, is prohibited. In all the present 
territory south of that line the status of per- 
sons held to service or la.3or, as it now exists, 
shall not be changed. Nor shall any law be 
passed hy Congress or the territorial legisla- 
ture to hinder or prevent the taking of such 
persons from any of the States of this Union 
to said territory, nor to impair the rights aris- 
ing from said relation. But the same shall be 
subject to judicial cognizance in the Federal 
courts according to the common law. When 
any territory north or south of said line, with 
such boundary line as Congress may prescribe 
shall contain a population equal to that re- 
quired for a member of Congress, ,it shall, if 
its form of government be republican, be ad- 
mitted into the Union on an equal footing with 
the original States, with or without involun- 
tary servitude, as the constitution of such State 
may provide. 

"Sec. 2. No territory shall be aquired by 
the United States except by discovery and for 
naval and commercial stations, depots, and 
transit routes, without the concurrence of a 
majority ot all the Senators from the States 
which allow involuntary servitude, and a maj- 
ority of all the Senators from States whicli 
prohibit that relation ; nor shall territory be 
acquired by treaty, unless the votes of a maj- 
ority of the Senators from each cbiss of States 
hereinbefore mentioned be cabT as a part of 
the two-third majority necessary to the ratifi- 
cation of such treaty. 

"Sec. 3. Neither the constitution nor any 
amendment thereto, shall be consti-ued to give 
Congress power to regulate, abolish or control, 
within any state or territory of the United 



States, the relation established or recognized 
by the laws thereof touching persons bound to 
labor or involuntary service in the District of 
Columbia, without the consent of Maryland, 
and without the consent of the owners, or, 
making the owners who do not consent just 
compensation; nor the power to interfere with 
or prohibit representatives and others from 
bringing with them to the city of Washington, 
retaining and taking away, persons so bound 
to labor or service, nor the power to interfere 
with or abolish involuntary service in places 
under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United 
States within these states and territories where 
the same is established or organized; nor the 
power to prohibit the removal or transiiortation 
of persons held to labor or involuntary service 
in any state or territory of the United States 
to any other state or territory thereof, where 
it is established or recognized bylaw or usage; 
and the right, during transportation by sea or 
river, of touching at ports, shores and landings, 
but not for sale or traffic, shall exist; nor shall 
Congress have power to authorize any higher 
rate of taxation on persons held to labor or 
service than on land. The bringing into the 
District of Columbia of persons held to labor 
or service for sale, or placing them in depots 
to be afterwards transferred to other places 
for sale as merchandize, is prohibited, and the 
right of transit through any state or territory 
against its dissent, is prohibited. 

"Sec. 4. The third paragrah of the second 
section of the fourth article of the constitution 
shall not be construed to prevent any of the 
states, by appropriate legislation, and through 
the action of their judicial and ministerial offi- 
cers, from enforcing the delivery of fugitives 
from labor to the person to whom such service 
or labor is due. 

"Sec. 5. The'foreign slave trade is hereby 
forever prohibited, and it shall be the duty of 
Congress to pass laws to prevent the importa- 
tion of slaves, coolies or persons held to ser- 
vice or labor, into tlie United States, and the 
Territories from places beyond the limits 
thereof. 

"Sec. 6. The first, third and fifth sections, 
together with this section six of these amend- 
ments, and the third paragraph of the second 
section of the first article of the constitution, 
and third paragraph of the second section of 
the fourth article thereof, shall not be amend- 
ed or abolished without the consent of all the 
states. 

"Sec. 7. Congress shall provide by law that 
the United States shall pay to the owner the full 
value of his fugitives from labor, in all cases 
where the Marshal or other officer whose duty 
it was to arrest such fugitive, was prevented 
from so doing by violence or intimidation from 
mobs or riotous assemblages, or when, after ar- 
rest, such fugitive was rescued by like violence 
or intimidation, and the owner thereby pre- 
vented and obstructed in the pursuit of his 
remedy for the recovery of such fugitive. Con- 
gress shall provide by law for securing to the 
citizens of each state the privilege's and immun- 
ities of the several states " 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



145 



NT., franklin's substitute. 

The substitute offered in the Peace Confer, 
ence by Mr. Franklin, of Pennsylvania, for 
the first article of the Guthrie Basis, and which 
was adopted by the vote of all the states rep- 
resented, except Virginia, North Carolina, 
Tennessee, Delaware and Missouri, is as fol- 
lows: 

"Art. 1. In all the present territory of the 
United States, not embraced in the Cherokee 
Treaty, North of the parallel of thirty-six de- 
grees and thity minutes of North latitude, in- 
voluntary servitude, except in punishment of 
crime, is prohioited. In all the present terri- 
tory South of that line, the status of persons 
held to service or labor, as it now exists, shall 
not be changed by law, nor shall the rights 
arising from said relation be impaired; but 
the same shall be subject to judicial cognizance 
in the Federal Courts, according to the com- 
mon law. When any territory North or South 
of said line within such boundary as Congress 
may prescribe, shall contain a population equal 
to that required for a member of Congress, it 
shall, if its form of government be republican, 
be admitted into the Union on an equal footing 
with the original states, with or without invol- 
untary servitude, as the Constitution of such 
state may provide." 

THE EFFECT OF IT. 

The failure of Wisconsin, says the Milwau- 
kee Senti)itl, to appoint commissioners is likely 
to have a decidedly opposite effect from what 
the opponents of such action have intended. 
The N. Y. 7\-.j< says: 

"In the conference four strongly Republican 
states remain unrepresented. Michigan, Wis- 
consin, Minnesota and Kansas have neglected 
or refused to send commissioners. Of the 
twenty slates represented, three of the free, 
Rhode Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 
will join the seven slave states in any proposi- 
tions which the latter desire. Thus, should the 
slave states unite for Guthrie's plan, the vote 
would probably be a tie, ten to ten. The four 
free states not represented in the Peace Con- 
ference owe it to the country to repair their 
neglect and authorize the attendahce of com- 
missioners." 

GBEELEY STRIVES TO I'HEVENT COMrROMISE. 

The following appeared in the New York 
Tribune while the peace negociations were 
pending. It was designed to frighten ofl" the 
partizans: 

"For a man or a party to win a Presiden- 
tial election under false pretences, is an of- 
fense as much more heinous than obtaining 
money under false pretenses, as the adminis- 
tration of the affairs of a great nation is of 
more consequence to the world than the ques- 



tion whether John Doe or Richard Roe shall 
possess a certain ten dollar bill. The Repub- 
lican party obtained power in the recent Pres- 
idential contest by professing certain clearly 
defined principles upon the subject of slavery 
in the territories. Being about to assume the 
seals of office, eminent men, of whom it had a 
right to expect better things, counsel that it 
repudiate its platform of principles, confess 
itself a common cheat, turn its back upon those 
who elevated it to place, and convict itself of 
having cither been a rank hypocrite before the 
election, or of being a skulking craven now. »^ 
Such counselors should know that men and \ / 
parties which attain power by professing one V 
set of principles, and then, when in office, sac- ''\ 
rifice them, and carry out another set, always • 
break down and go to perdition, amid the jeers 
of the foes whom they beat in the contest, and 
the execrafions of the friends whom they af- 
terwards betraj'ed. And yet this sort of grand 
larceny, this stealing into power by false to- 
kens, this playing the 'confidence game' on 
the broad theatre of a nation, is sometimes 
called statesmanship! The Republican party 
can better afford to lose than keep the authors 
of such statesmanship in its ranks. Let them 
go!" 

The Tribune followed this up by declaring 
the right of secession. On the 2d of March, 
'61, it said: 

"We have repeatedly said, and we once more 
insist, that the great principle embodied by 
Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, 
that governments derive their just powers from >^ 
the consent of the governed, is sound and just; ^^ 
and that, if the slave states, the cotton states, / 
or the Gulf states only, choose to form an in- 
dependent nation, thei/ have a moral right to 
do soP^ 

We might fill a dozen volumes with corelativc 
testimony, all going to show that the Republi- 
cans were determined that no compromise 
should be affected. Most of their leading 
presses and orators treated all who favored 
compromise as little, if any better than trai- 
tors. 

Little did they think that compromise is writ- 
ten on the face of nature itself, and that their 
very existence is the result of compromise. 

The yielding amJ"9pi»pensating principles 
between heat and coKl, wet and dry, earth and 
air, attraw-ion and repulsion, positive and neg- 
ative, in the mental and physical, good and bad, 
in the moral and political, wise and unwise 
principles in the material world, are all the re- 
sult of compromise. Without this accommo- 
dating principle, or virtue of yielding partially 
to opposing forces, to secure results otherwise 
unattainable, no human government could be 
formed, no laws could be enacted, no laws es- 



146 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



ecuted, no society maintained, and even no 
family happiness secured. 

No compromise, said the Republicans, and 
as they looked upon their Wide-Awake battal- 
ions, "panting for the fray," they bid defiance 
to conciliation, and looking to the South as 
Cffisar viewed the Persians across the Helles- 
pont, like Shakespeare's hero they exclaimed: 

"Let tbem come! 
They come like sacrifices m their train, 
And to the tire-eyed maid of smoky war. 
All hot and bleeding, we will offer tlieni! 
The mailed Wars shall on his altar sit, 
Up to his eats in blood!" 

But, happy for them, if in the sequel they 
do not feel inclined, in the language of Henry 
VI to exclaim: 

"Ah! vain Republicans, thosa days are dangerous! 

Tirtue is cUuked with foul ambition, 

And charity chased hence by rancor's Iiand — 

Foul subordination is predominant, 

And equity exiled our natiTo land; 

The gods of party rule the fatal hour, 

And mocK all ellbrt.-j to reprieve the victims!" 



CHAPTE^IV. 

REPUBLICAN EFFORTS TO STIMULATE DISSOLU- 
TION— THEIR DISLOYALTY AND TREASON. 

The Morrill Tariff as a Means to Hasten Dissolution... 
Opinions of the "Cincinnati Commercial," " New York 
Times," and " New York World "...From the "London 
Times "...The Tables Turned on the Charge of "Disloi-- 
alty"... Rules of Testimony, and the Proof of Republi- 
can Disloyalty. ..Testimony of Andrew Johnson. ..Sena- 
tor Wilson on "Setting up with the Union". ..What 
Constitutes a "Tr.aitor" and a " Copperhead "...Mr. 
Lincoln on the Stand : Ilis Preaching contrasted with 
his Practice. ..Congress on the " Object " of the War... 
"Indianapolis Sentinel " ditto. ..Thad. Stevens against 
the Constitution as it is. ..Mr. Chase Declares the Union 
Not AVorth Fighting For. ..Frank Blair on Chase. ..Thur- 
low Weed on Mob Inciters. ..Being for the Union as it 
was Declared an "Offense "...The Present Programme 
Blocked Out Just After Lincoln's Nomination. ..Daw- 
" Bon's Letter to tho "Albany Journal "...Qiddings in 
the Chicago Convention ; His Radical Doctrine Voted 
Down There ; IIow Acted On. ..Lincoln's Letter of Ac- 
ceptance. ..Lincoln and the Chicago Platform in Juxta- 
position... Sumner Opens tho Radical Ball..." New Y'ork 
Post " and Other Papers fear it was Premature. ..The 
Other Class of Disunionists... Treason of tho " Chicago 
Tribune "...The Crittenden Resolutions. ..The Proclama- 
tion and Emancipation : Conclusions Thereon..." New 
York Tribune " and Other Sheets" Predict Good Things 
...The "Pope's Bull Against the Comet "...The Object 
to Divide the North, &c....Gov. Andrew Before and Af- 
ter the Proclamation. ..Choice Inconsistencies, &c... 
Money and Not tho Proelamation Required to Make 
the " Roads Swarm '...Greeley Down on Old Abe... 
Seward Pronounces tho Proclamation Unconstitutional. 

THE MORRILL TARIFF AS A MEANS TO HASTEN 
SECESSION AND DISSOLUTION. 

The passage of the Morrill tariiF, -with its 
high pressure demands, just in the nick of 
time, when the Southern fever was at boiling 
pitch, was not only calculated to hasten seces- 
sion and dissolution, but that act was passed 
under such circumstances, as to leave little 



poubt of its intent. We submit the following 
testimony: 

repeal OE the TARIFF. 

The Cincinnati Commercial (Rep.) says: 

"Our new and supremely idiotic Tariff is a 
great lever placed in the hands of the Seces- 
sionists, and they are employing it with tre- 
mendous effect to pry off the border slave states 
from the Union. It is vastly more efficient than 
the negro <piestion. The negro cry had lost its 
effect in the border states, for it was phiin that 
tho negro interest was better off within than it 
would be without the Union. But the cry of 
oppressive revenue laws in the North, enacted 
for the benefit of special interests, and that 
there is more freedom of trade in the South, 
will convince multitudes that they would im- 
prove their condition by going out of the Union. 
There is no necessity so pressing and exacting 
as the repeal of the Tariff abomination. It was 
intended to protect a few interests, and it will 
be ruinous to all. The system of favoritism in 
legislation is always pernicious. In these rev- 
olutionary times it is fatal. There should be 
an extra- session of Congress immediately, and 
within the first hour after its organization a 
bill should be introduced repealing the Tariff. 
The moment an extra session is called, and we 
think the call inevitable, petitions must be cir- , 
culated throughout the West, praying and de- 
manding the instant repudiation of the miser- 
ably short-sighted and'puerile'policy of Penn- 
sylvania. Every movement toward perfect 
freedom of trade with direct taxation for the 
support of the Government, is in the right di- 
rection. 

A GLOOMY PICTURE ! — EFFECT OF THE MOR- 
RILL TARIFF — THE GOVERNMENT UNABLE 
TO ENFORCE ITS LAWS, &C. 

The New York Times, (Rep.) draws the 
following gloomy picture under the caption of 
'Breakers Ahead :" 

"The enactment of a highly protective tariff 
on the heel of the last session of Congress, 
without the least provison made for its enforce- 
ment, and at the very time xvhen secession loas 
so fully matured as to indicate its character 
and purpose, was an act of reckless folly un- 
paralleled in our legislative history. The 
measure is equally bad in every point in which 
it can be viewed. It is not a revenue tariff. — 
Its object was to discourage importations. It 
cannot be enforced on more than three thou- 
sand miles of interior line. We treat the se- 
ceding Statc3 as a portion of our Confederacy. 
A ship may lawfully enter their ports and put 
its goods in warehouse. In seizures for con- 
demnation, the case would Ije tried in the 
United States Courts, and before a "local" 
jury. No such jury exist. If they did it 
would be difficult to tell how the jury would 
decide. The President has no power what- 
ever in the premises. His guides are well 
established laws which contemplated nothing 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



147 



like the present state of affairs. The spectacle 
of a great nation unable to enforce a law en- 
acted with all due solemnity and upon the ob- 
servance of which the exercise of all its func- 
tions depend, is humiliating to the last de- 
gree. 

"Whatever may be the ultimate aims of the 
seceding states, a present advantage is of the 
utmost importance as a lever for future opera- 
tions. A tarriff is highly unpopular in the 
border states. The one just enacted is the 
strongest argument yet addressed to them to 
go to the seceding ones, and is telling with 
great effect. No matter how absurd may be 
the statements and arguments used, they none 
the less effect what we would avoid. We do 
not at the present moment wish to give an op- 
portunity to draw an ill-natured picture of the 
Northern capitalist seeking by legislation to 
add to his gains, by increasing the cost of eve- 
rything the poor man uses. No step could 
have been taken, so well calculated to alienate 
the border states, at the very moment it has 
been our policy to conciliate them. 

"The seceding states have us at equal disad- 
vantage in the foreign Courts. The nations of 
Europe with whom we have the most intimate 
commercial relations are earnest advocates of 
free trade. Yet at the very moment that we 
most desire their sympathy and co-operation, 
we insult their conviction and strike the sever- 
est blow in our power at their interests. . The 
seceding states will take instant advantage of 
our blunder, and will make every effort to se- 
cure their will, if not an actual recognition, by 
adopting a commercial policy in harmony with 
their own. It was for this purpose, undouljt- 
edly, that the enactment of the new tariff was 
postponed, to await the report of the Commis- 
sioners just sent abroad. 

"At home and abroad, we are already feeling 
the effects of our gratuities folly. Both Eng- 
lish and French journals are teeming with ill- 
natured and unfavorable remarks; with con- 
trasts either openly stated or implied in favor 
of the seceding states. 

"Never was a nation in greater embarrass- 
ment. We confess our inability to enforce the 
most important law we enact, and sit passively 
down and see them violated, without raising a 
finger. IIow can we maintain any national 
spirit under such humiliation? We take the 
step of all others most calculated to alienate 
the border states and foreign nations. We can 
neither collect our revenue or afford protection. 
"Who, under such circumstances, would dare to 
embark in any enterprise? How much reve- 
nue can be collected in Northern ports? No 
one can answer these questions. Is not such 
uncertainty the greatest of all evils? A state 
of war would be almost preferable. It would 
be the beginning of an end. Thus far we seem 
to be without direction or purpose, or the means 
of enforcing our purpose, if we had any.'' 

THE SHEER TOMFC'OLERT OP THE NEW TARIFF. 

The New York World said: 

"To say that this new tariff is simply impo- 



tent for good, goes but a small way toward mar- 
king its folly. It teems with mischief. It 
widens the chasm between the revolted states 
and the Government, by introducing anew a 
system which has always been obnoxious to 
them, and which would be sure to repel them 
now did they have any disposition to return to 
their old line of duty. It weakens the hands 
of the Union men of the border states, who al- 
ready find it hard enough to keep their mortal 
eneaiies at bay. It greatly'disaffects England 
and France, alienating the good will which the 
Federal Government might otherwise surely 
reckon on, and presents them a direct induce- 
ment to recognize, at the earlist day, the inde- 
pendence of the states which reject both it and 
the policy on which it rests. It imposes new 
troubles and burdens upon the administrators 
of the law at a time when it was hard to see 
how they could efficiently and honorably dis- 
charge those which already pressed upon them. 
It paralyzes the authority of the Government, 
and puts it in a helpless and ridiculous posi- 
tion, like Qilpidus in rags, or Belisarius at the 
wayside, at a time when, if ever, it needed its 
whole prestige, its strongest moral force. If 
Congress was bent on fastening this measure 
upon the country, it should at least have arm- 
ed the President with power to enforce it, 
either by enabling him to abolish contumacious 
ports of entry, or to collect the revenues out- 
side the harbor To make law, yet withhold 
the means of its execution, is sheer 'tomfool- 
ery." 

THE MORRILL T.\RIFF IN ENGLAND. 

The London Times said: 

"We do not say that the tide has turned, but 
wo say that matters are just in that state which 
imposes a very grave responsibility on friendly 
nations and especially on Great Britain. It is 
quite possible to forecast and arm ourselves 
against the cmsequeuces of the revolutionary 
movement, so far as they affect this island, 
without treating it as a fait acco7npli. We shall 
not be deterred, for instance, by the wrath of 
a New York cotemporary from looking for new 
sources of cotton supply, and drawing, if ne- 
cessary upon the resourses of our own colonies, 
to save our manufacturers from ruin. On the 
other hand we cannot fail to see, and it is our 
duty to point out, the tendency of a retrogade 
commercial policy in the North to divert Eu- 
ropean trade from Boston and New York to 
Charleston and New Orleans. These are mat- 
ters of business, and the warmest friends of the 
Union cannot expect our merchants to celebrate 
its obsequies by self-immolation." 

This is the way we are "making history." 
To say that this measure was not intended to 
widen the breach, and drive away the South, 
would be a poor compliment to the intelligence 
of the leaders who were responsible for' the 
Morrill Tariff. That the rebels in Congress 
either voted for this Tariff or silently permit- 
ted it to pass, shows that they wore as anxious 



148 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



to have this "irritating scheme" passed, as its 
Northern friends were to pass it, and probablj 
for the same purpose — as a common lever to 
move a common object. 

We would have charity, and would not con- 
demn our fellow men of so gross crimes, with- 
out sufficient evidence; but we submit it to the 
scrutinizing ordeal of histoiy. which shall, 
without bias, apply all the foregoing facts, and 
what may yet follow in these pages, to deter- 
mine whether all the conspirators against our 
Government left the Union under the Southern 
ordinances of secession. 

the tables turned on the charge of 
"disloyalty." 

Disloyalty, in its political signification, 
means unfaithfulness to one's gevernment, or 
"system of laws," which constitute the Gov- 
ernment. This is the only test that can be 
made in this country. In monarchial govern- 
ntsme, loyalty to thQjJtrson of the monarch is 
required, because a monarch or despot assumes 
to be the government, but in this country, ac- 
cording to the code adopted by our fathers, loy- 
alty to our "system of laws" is all that can be 
required, and he who is unfaithful to that 
"system of laws" is disloyal to the govern- 
ment. By that "system of laws" i.s meant any 
law that may be passed in "pursuance" of the 
constitution, which is the fountain license of 
power. 

Here, then, is the correct definition of "loy- 
alty" used in a political sense (though in fact 
no such word belongs to the nomenclature of 
a Eepublican Government) and as we have al- 
ready shown from innumerable speeches, re- 
solves, addresses and editorials, by the radical 
leaders of the party in power, 'to be not only 
denunciatory of the constitution and such laws 
passed under it, as they do not relish, but that 
they have raised the standard of "positive de- 
fiance" and hence have shown their disloyalty 
to their government. 

Not only this, but we believe, and will en- 
deavor to prove, by a chain of circumstantial 
and and positive evidence, as strong as would 
bequired in a court of justice to convict one 
charged with murder in the first degree, that 
the political leaders of the party in power de- 
sire^ and will accomplish, if they can, a disso- 
lution of the Union. This is a serious charge, 
wc know. If true, the guilty should be placed 
in a higher grade of crime, if that be possible. 



than the Southern rebels, because to the same 
crime they (the radicals) add deception and 
hypocrisy. 

If we were Prosecuting Attorney in court, 
and it was our official duty to prosecute a man 
for wilful murder, on cireumstantial evidence, 
and if we should succeed in proving — 

1st. A motive for the crime. 

2d, Opportunity to commit it. 

3d, Threats to accomplish it. 

4th, That the weapon of death had been 
found in the prisoner's possession. 

5tb, That blood had been found upon his 
person. 

6th. That it was for his interest, either pe 
cuniarily or otherwise to have the deceased out 
of the way. 

7th. Frequent admissions by the prisoner 
that he had attempted to take the life of the 
deceased. 

If we had proved all these facts, we should 
have a clear conscience to ask the jury for a ver- 
dict of "guilty" — we should cite the court to 
innumerable cases, where conviction was had 
on weaker testimony than this — we should ask 
the court for instructions on this point — the 
court would give them — the jury would render 
a verdict of guilty, if unbiased, without leaving 
their seats. 
• Now, what is the evidence before us ? 

The leaders of the party in power are pris- 
oners before the bar of public opinion, charged 
with the crime of not only disloyalty, but tresaon 
to the Government. What is the evidence.? 

1st. We have shown their motive for disso- 
lution, as exhibited through 'a long series of 
years — to divide the Union, and multiply the 
officers, so as to give a fewer number a greater 
opportunity at the spoils — to build up an ari- 
stocracy; wherein the poor shall pay constant 
tribute to the rich, by way of enormous taxes 
for interest on a monstrous public debt, which 
they have claimed to be a "public blessing." 

•2d. Is not the present the fairest opportuni- 
ty., to destroy the Union and civil liberty, on 
the pretext of military necessity ? 

3d. Threats — Search the preceding pages, 
and you will find ^Ar^ais without number to 
dissolve the Union. 

4th. Have these marplots not been found 
with the weapons of dissolution in their hands, 
— to-wit: the slavery agitation, to say nothing 
of other weapons? Read the testimony given 
by themselves. 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



149 



5th. Has not blood been found upon their 
persons? Were not their garments stained witk 
the blood of poor Bacheldek. in Boston, in 
1854, in the discharge of his duty? Were not 
their whole garments dripping with human 
gore, when they deified John Brown, and in- 
dorsed his insurrection and murders? 

6th. Have they not often declared it was for 
their interest, pecuniary and otherwise, to have 
the old Union out of the way? 

7th. Have they not time and again admitted 
that they have attempted to take the life of the 
Union? Do they not even now tell us, with 
lips steeped in clammy treason, that the Union 
shall live no more? 

We might stop here and "rest" our case as 
having been made out by the admissions of the 
implicated ones themselves, but we will pre- 
sent accumulative circumstantial and positive 
evidence. 

It will be recollected that when Sumter had 
been fired on, and the shock of battle reverbe- 
rated through the land, the whole North, as one 
man (that is, without distinction of party) rose 
in its might to shake off the incubus of disun- 
ion. Democrats forgot the animosities engen- 
dered by the political contest but sis months 
before, and did not stop to enquire whether 
they were to be commanded by political friend 
or foe. Men of all parties rushed to the stan- 
dard of their country, asking no conditions 
but the privilege of fighting to preserve the 
Union as it was. Now for the testimony. 

WHAT ANDREW JOHNSON SAYS. 

Andy Johnson, the Military Governor ap- 
pointed by President Lincoln for Tennessee, 
bears witness as to the policy of the Adminis- 
tration party, as follows: 

"There are two parties in existence who 
want dissolution. Slavery and a Southern 
Confederacy is the hobby. Sumner wants to 
break up the Government, and so do the Abo- 
litionists generally. They hold that if slavery 
survives the Union cannot endure. Secession- 
ists argue that if the Union continues slavery 
is lost. Abolitionists want no compromise, 
but they regard peacable secession as a hum- 
bug. The two occupy the same ground. Why, 
abolition is dissolution; dissolution is ceces- 
sion; one is the other. Both are striving to 
accomplish the same object. One thinks it 
will destroy^ the other save slavery." 

'•SllXINQ UP WITH THE UNION." 

Here is what Senator Wilson, one of the big 
chiefs ot the Republican party, said in a recent 
speech: 



"This extra anxiety about the Uniiti is the 
merest cant. The country is sick of it. The 
sad fate of the chiefs of this Union cry i'or the 
past three years must convince even the mem- 
ber from Windham that this sitting uj)zvith the 
Union docs not pay expenses.''' 

WHAT CONSTITUTES A TEAITOK OR COPPER- 
HEAD. 

A very common practice prerails among the 
Republicans to call all persons "traitors," 
"copperheads," who cannot vote for, or con- 
tinue to support their theories. They disclaim 
having changed in their principles since the 
beginning of our national troubles, but such as 
choose to stand on the principles that we all 
occupied in 1861, and cannot follow the doc- 
trines of fanaticism, are denounced as disloy- 
al— branded with the epithet of "traitor," 
"copperhead," &c. Now, let us review the 
past, and see if these SO CALLED UNION 
partizans stand by the professions of 1861, as 
they continuously claim not to have changed; 
but all who refuse to vote with them, have sud- 
denly become "DISLOYAL," "traitors," and 
"COPPERHEADS." We will call Mr. Lin- 
coln on the witness stand first, and see how 
he stood at the time of his inaugural. There 
we read thus: 

"Apprehensions seem to exist among the 
people of the Southern states, that by the ac- 
cesion of a republican administration, their 
property, and their peace and personal sectjir- 
ity are to be endangered. There has never been 
any reasonable cautefor such apprehensioii. In- 
deed, the most ample evidence to the contrary 
has all the while existed and been open to their 
inspection. It is found in nearly all the writ- 
ten speeches of him who now addresses you. I 
do but quote from one of those speeches when 
I declare that I have no purpose^^directly or in- 
directly., to interfere loith slavery in the states 
ichere it exists— I BELIEVE I HAVE NO 
LAWFUL RIGHT TO DO SO, AND I HAVE 
NO INCLINATION TO DO SO. Those who 
nominated me did so with full knowledge that 
I had made this and many similar declarations 
and had never recanted them. 

"And more than this, they placed in the 
platform for my acceptance, and as a law to 
themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic 
resolution, which I now read : 

"Resolved, That tbe maiutainance inviolate of therights 
of the States, and especially the rir/hl of each Slate to or- 
der and controlits oiun domestic institutions, according to 
its oxon judgment exclusivdij, is essential to the balance of 
power, on which the perfection ami enilurance of our pol- 
itical fabric depends ; and we denounce the lawless inva- 
sion by armed force of the soil of any State or Torritorv, 
no matter under what pretext, as AMONG THE GRAY- 
EST CHIMES." 

"I NOW REITERATE THESE SENTI- 
MENTS; and, in doing so, I only press upon 
the public attention the most conclusive evi- 



150 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



dence of which the case is susceptible, that 
ih.Q property . peace and security of no section 
are to be in any wise endangered by the new 
incoming Administration. I add. too, that all 
the protection which, consistently with the 
Constitution and laws, can be given, will be 
cheerfully given to all the states when lawful- 
ly demanded, for whatever cause — as cheer- 
fully to one section as to another. I take the 
official oath to-day with wo ?HC7i<a/ reservations, 
and with no purpose to construe the Consti- 
tution and laws by any hypocritical rules." 

Such was the language of Mr. Lincoln on 
the 4th of March, 1861, standing upon the 
steps of the Capitol, about to take the most 
solemn oath, calling God to witness his sincer- 
ity, to faithfully perform the duties of his of- 
fice, and uphold the constitution and laws of 
our country. Men who favored Mr. Lincoln's 
aentiments in 1861, are called "traitors," and 
"copperheads," because they firmly believe the 
same doctrine, and will not change, and can- 
not vote with the Republicans. 

Mr. Lincoln, in his message to congress 
(extra session), July 3d, 1861, after the war 
had begun, said: 

"Lest there be some uneasiness in the minds 
of candid men as to what is to be the course of 
the Goveoument toward the Southern states, 
AFTER the rebellion shall have been suppress- 
ed, the Executive deems it proper to say, it 
will be his purpose then, as ever, to be guided 
by the Constitution and laws, and that he 
probably will have no different understamiing 
of the powers and duties of the Federal Gov- 
ernment relative to the rights of the states and 
the people, under the Constitution, THAN 
THAT EXPRESSED IN THE INAUGURAL 
ADDRESS. He desires to preserve the Gov- 
ernment, that it may be administered for all, 
as it 2cas administered lij the men who made it. 
Loyal citizens everywhere have a right to claim 
this of their Government; and the Government 
has no. right to withhold or neglect it. It is not 
perceived, that in giving it, there is any coer- 
cion, any conquest, or any subjugation, in any 
just sense of these terms." 

Now, reader, this same doctrine is TRAIT- 
OROUS in 1864, if we do not happen to vote 
the so-called UNION ticket. 

CONGRESS ON THE OB.JECT OF THE WAR. 

Let US now notice some resolutions passed in 
the House as recorded in the Congressional 
Globe, which received the unanimous support 
of the republicans, on the 11th of Feb., 1861: 

'••Resolved^ That neither the Federal GDvern- 
ment, nor the people, or Governments of non- 
slave holding states, have a purpose or a Con- 
stitutional right to legislate upon, or interfere 
with slavery in any of the States of the Union. 



'•'•Resolved^ That those persons in the North 
who do not subscribe to the foregoing proposi- 
tions, are too insignificant in numbers and in- 
fluence to excite the serious attention or alarm 
of any portion of the people of the Republic; 
and that the increase of their numbers and in- 
fluence does not keep pace with the increase of 
the aggregate population of the Union." 

Nothing short of a Copperhead Congress 
could pass such regolutions in 1864. 

Again, see Congressional Globe, after Bull 
Run battle, July 23d, 1861; Congress with the 
almost unanimous Republican vote passed the 
following resolution; * 

Resolved, That the war is waged by the gov- 
ernment of the United States, not in the spirit 
of conquest or subjugation, nor for the purpose 
of overthrowing or interfering with the rights y 
or institutions of the states, but to defend and / 
maintain the supremacy of the constitution, 
and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, 
equality and rights of the several States unim- 
paired; and that as soon as tbese objects are 
accomplished, the war ought to cease. 

Now, in 1864, we who claim to cherish the 
sentiments of this resolution are traitors and 
copperheads. 

Again, the IndianajDolis Sentinel, a leading 
Republican state organ, which has not been 
accused of disloyalty by its party, under date 
of September 24th, 1861, says : 

"The President is right in his treatment of 
Fremont's Proclamation. Congress, at the re- 
cent session, with direct reference to the negro 
question in the rebellion, having prescribed a 
precise rule of action for the Government, the 
Government mu.=t necessarily adhere to this 
rule of action. To disobey it, or to transcend 
it, ever so little, is to treat the law-making 
power with contempt, and to make the Presi- 
dent liable to impeachment. It is immaterial, 
in this regard, whether the rule prescribed is 
right or wrong; it is prescribed bj' the only 
power which has authority to prescribe it, and 
it must stand and command obedience until 
that power shall abolish or alter it." 

Who dare assert, in 1864, that the exercise 
of power in issuing the proclamation, establish- 
ed a limited monarchy, are deemed as traitors 
and copperheads. We who believed in the above 
principles in 1861, and were loyal, and still 
sincerely believe them right in 1864, are de- 
nounced as disloyal, traitors — copperheads, be- 
cause we choose not to change our opinions, and 
fall in with a fanatical party, under the sancti- 
monious name of Union, and adopt Greeley's 
doctrine — that of Negro Emancipation — and 
Thad. Stevens, the leader of the late Repub- 
lican Congress, who, in a speech, said : 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



151 



"The Union as it was, and the Constitution 
as it is— GOD FORBID IT ! We must con- 
quer the Southern States, and hold them as 
conquered provinces." 

And yet there are none but loyalists and pa- 
triots in this new party! Well, the world does 
move. 

MR. CH.\SE PRONOUNCES "THE UNION NOT 
AVORTH FIGHTING FOB." 

A Mr. Blow, in St. Louis, not relishing the 
manner in which Gen. Frank P. Blair deals 
with the Jacobins in Missouri and with the re- 
strictions imposed upon trade on the Missisip- 
pi, read that gentleman a lecture a few weeks 
since. The general has replied, and we copy 
from his rejoinder the following notice of the 
Secretary of the Treasury. As the General is 
"loyal," we presume "loyalists" will accept 
him as authority: 

"I know Mr. Chase tolerably well. With 
very great ability, and all the good looks, pol- 
ished manners, and gentlemanly bearing that 
Mr. Blow claims for him, he is as thoroughly 
selfish and narrow as any public man in the 
country. 

"Wlien the rebellion broke out, Mr Chase 
held this language: '■The South is not ivorth 
fighting for. ^ Several gentlemen of high posi- 
tion in the country heard him utter this senti- 
ment, substantially. He was at that time Sec- 
retary of the Treasury. Jeff. Davis exclaimed 
as he left thu Senate, 'All the South wants is to 
be let alone,' and Mr. Secretary Chase was, in 
effect, declaring 'The South is not worth fight- 
ing for.' Jeff. Davis said, 'Let us alone.' 
Chase said. 'Let them alone.' The difference 
between them in fact, although their motives 
are wide apart, was the difference between 
tweedledum and tweedledee. One wanted a 
Southern and the other a Northern Confede- 
racy, each believing his own chances best in 
that sort of a division." 

WEED ON THE MOB INCITERS. 

Mr. Thurlow Weed wrote a letter express- 
ing his indignation at the cowardly treatment 
of the unoffending negroes by the New York 
mob. He inclosed a check of §500 for their 
relief, and said: 

"For the persecution of the negro there is a 
divided responsibility. The hostility of Irish- 
men to Africans is unworthy of men who them- 
selves seek and find, in America, an asylum 
from oppression. Yet this hostility would not 
culminate in marder and arson, but for the 
stimulants supplied by fanatics. Journalists 
who persistently inflame and exasperate the 
ignorant and lawless against the negro, are 
morally responsible for these outrages. But 
what cares AVendell Phillips how many negroes 
are murdered, if their blood furnished mate- 



rial for agitation? There is abundant occa- 
sion for the public abhorence of mob violence. 
But when all the circumstances have been re- 
viewed, the popular condemnation of those 
who, while the nation is struggling for exist- 
ence, thrust the unoffending negro forward as 
a target for infuriated mobs, will become gen- 
eral and emphatic. Ultra abolitionists were 
hailed, in South Carolina, as the "best 
friends" of secession. Practically, they are 
the worst enemies of the colored man. But 
for the "malign influence" of these howling 
abolitionists, in Congress and with the Presi- 
dent, rebellion would not, in the beginning, 
have assumed such formidable proportions; 
nor, in its progress, would the North have been 
divided, or the government crippled." 

WIIT SENATOR LATHAM WAS DEFEATED. 

The Chicago Tribune^ in alluding to the de- 
feat of Senator Latham, of California, for the 
United States Senate, said: 

"He was in favor of the Union as it was. 
No other offense was alleged against him." 

Thus, we have the allegation that to be in 
favor of the "Union as it was" is an "offense." 

MR. CHASE an OLD ABOLITIONIST. 

On the 9th of September, 1844, Mr. Salmon 
P. Chase issued, through the columns of the 
Ohio Columbian., an Abolition paper, what he 
termed the "Liberty Man's Creed," from 
which we select the following: 

"I believe that whenever the judiciary of 
the United States shall cease to be the crea- 
ture of the slave power, and the judges shall 
receive their appointment from a Liberty Pres- 
ident and Senate, slavery will be declared to 
be unconstitutional in the District of Columbia, 
in Florida, and in all states created out of ter- 
ritories. 

''■I believR that slavery in the United States 
will 7iot survive the accession of the Liberty par- 
ty to powtr a single year.'''' 

Can any one doubt his original purposes? 

the programme blocked out just after 
Lincoln's nomination. 

Mr. Lincoln was nominated in May 1860. 
The friends of Mr. Seward declared that the 
Cunvention in throwing over Seward and 
taking up Lincoln, had but followed their in- 
stinct oi policy to obtain votes they could not 
otherwise receive. 

On this subject we quote a letter from Mr. 
Geo. Dawson, junior editor of the Albany 
Journal (Seward organ) written from the 
Chicago Convention to that paper: 

'■Chicago, May 19, 1S60. 
"Misrepresentation has achieved its work. 
The timid and credulous have succumbed to 



X52 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



threats and perversions. To please a few thou- 
sand men of equivocal principle and faltering 
faith, millions of loyal hearts have been sad- 
dened. The recognized standard-bearer of the 
Kepublican party has been sacrified upon the 
altar of availabilty. 

This sacrifice was alike cruel and unneces- 
sary. No man in the Republican party has 
greater strength than V/m. 11. Seward. Neman 
deserves more at the hands of that party, or 
possesies greater fitness for the high office for 
which its national tribunal has declared him 
unworthy. His platform is that of the Repub- 
lican party and was before it. He, more than 
any other man, initiated the principles which 
called it into being, and which gave, and which 
still gives it all its vitality. No other man's 
history so distinctly embodies the grand idea 
which brought together those who originally 
entered into the Republican organization; and 
the world's verdict was, that good faith, com- 
mon honesty and the future history and well- 
being of the Redublican party demanded his 
nomination as its standard-bearer in the pres- 
ent canvass. 

"But this verdict has been reversed. The 
inflexible virtues, the unwavering integrity, 
the heroic courage, the profound sagacity, and 
the exalted statesmanship which endeared him 
to the people, constituted "the stumbling block 
and the rock of offence ' to the convention. He 
was deemed too pure, too consistent, too,heroic, 
too wise, and too thoroughly and too conspicu- 
ously imbued with the distinctive principles of 
Republicanism, to succeed. 

"Men, no single proportion of whose heart 
ever beat responsive to the principles of the 
Republican party, must be conciliated; and to 
do so AVilliam H. Seward must be sacrificed. 
Localities where Republicanism never had vi- 
tality to breathe were coveted; and to encour- 
age the etfort to achieve what is unattainable, 
William H. Seward was sacrificed. States who 
have never yet inhaled sufficient of the free 
spirit of Republicanism to assume its name, 
demanded the immolation, and they were grat- 
ified. Love of consistency, admiration for a 
long life of devotion to freedom, and a heroic 
purpose to stand or fall by the noblest embodi- 
ment of undiluted and undefiled principle, all 
had to succumb to fancied expediency and bit- 
ter hate. 

"The result is less a defeat of William H. 
Seward than a triumph of his personal ene- 
mies. The sentiment which culminated in his 
rejection was chiefly manufactured by those 
whose dislike of the man was infinitely in ad- 
vance of their principles. For years he has 
been their Mordecai;at the king's gate; and by 
feeding the doubts of some, by exciting the 
apprehensions of others, and by the industri- 
ous utterance of misrepresentations to all, 
they have like their ancient prototype, seem- 
ingly attained the end they have so ardently 
coveted, and secured the discomfiture of those 
who have, for long years, looked and hoped for 
the coming day when William H. Seward 
should attain the exalted position for which no 
man living is so worthy. I know very well 



th«t many of those by whose hands his immol 
ation was actually consumated did not share in 
the spirit of envy and hate, but enough did to 
turn the scale, and I have no wish to withhold 
from them this acknowledgement of their right 
to the commendations which they will covat 
from those who are in sympathy with them." 

Joshua R. Giddings was a member in good 
standing of the Chicago convention. We copy 
the following from its proceedings to show that 
they voted down anything like Sewardism, for 
fear they could not catch the "conservative" 
vote. Lincoln, at Freeport, had declared in 
favor of the Fugitive Slave Law, and his nom- 
ination was calculated to cater to the "pro- 
slavery" sentiment. But read the following 
by the light of subsequent events, and tell us 
whether you can escape the conclusion that 
policy and deception was combined in the Chi- 
cago convention: 

"Mr. Giddings — Mr. President, I propose to 
ofifer, after the first resolution as it stands 
here, as a declaration of principles, the fol- 
lowing: 

"That we solemnly re-assert the. self-evident truths that 
all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalien- 
able rights, among which are those of lite, liberty, and the 
pursuit of haijpiness, (cheers) that goven raeuts are insti- 
tuted among men to secure the enjoyment of these rights." 

"Mr. Carter, of Ohio, interrupted — Mr. 
President, I — 

"Mr. Giddings — My co|lleague will ask no 
favors of me, I take it. (Applause.) I will de- 
tain the convention but a moment. Two hun- 
dred years ago the philosophers of Europe de- 
clared to the world that human governments 
were based upon human rights, and all Chris- 
tain writers have sustained that doctrine until 
the members of this convention. Our Fathers 
impressed with this all permeating truth, that 
right of every human being to live and enjoy 
that liberty, whichenables him to obtain know- 
ledge and pursue happiness, and no man has 
the power to withhold it from him. (Prolong- 
ed cheers.) 

"Our fathers embraced this solemn truth; 
laid it down as the chief corner stone, the ba- 
sis upon which this Federal Government was 
founded, of all parties, the Supreme Court 
included, these were the primitive, life-giving, 
vitalizing principles of the Constitution. It is 
because these principles have been overturned 
denied and destroyed by our opponents, that 
we now exist as a party. (Cheers.) At Phila- 
delphia we called on them to meet it. They 
have not met it. They put forward the Supreme 
Court to meet it. The Court denied those 
principles, but the Democratis party to this day 
dare not deny them; a&d through the campaign 
and for four years, no Democrat has stood be- 
fore the world denying that truth, nor will they. 
Now, I propose to maintain the doctrines of 
our fathers. I propose to maintain the funda- 
mental and primeval issues upon which the Gov- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



153 



crnment was founded. I will detain this Con- 
vention no longer. I oflFer this because our 
party was formed upon it. It grew upon it. — 
It has existed upon it— and when you leave out 
this truth you leave out the party." 

The amendment was rejected by a large ma- 
jority. 

LINCOLN'S LETTER ACCEPTING THE NOMINA- 
TION. 

Now read Mr. Lincoln's letter of acceptance: 
Springfieli), III., May 22. 
Hon. Geo. Ashmsn, Prest. of the Republican National 
Convention: 

"Sir: — I accept the nominction tendered 
me by the Convention, over which you presid- 
ed, and of which I am formally apprised in a 
letter of yourself and otheis, acting as a com- 
mitted of that convention, for that purpose. — 
The declaration of principles and sentiments 
which accompanies your letter, meets my ap- 
proval^ and it shall be my care not to violate 
them, or disregard them in any particular. Im- 
ploring the assistance of Divine Power, and 
with due regard to the views and feelings of 
all who were represented in the convention, to 
the rights of the States, and Territories and 
people of the nation to the in violahilityof the 
Constitution, and the perpetual union, har- 
mony and prosperity of all, I am most happy 
to co-operate for the practical success of the 
principles declared by the convention. 

"Your obliged friend iiud fclUiw citizen, 

"ABJIAUAM LINCOLN." 

Now read the following in ju.xtaposition, and 
Mr. Lincoln's aims: 



setyf you can arrive at 

Extract from, Lincoln's 
speech, June 17, 1S58. 
"In my opinion it (slave- 
ry agitation) will not cease, 
until a crisis shall have been 
reached and passed. A house 
divided against itself cannot 
stand. I believe this gov- 
eriHuent cannot endure per- 
manently half slave and 
half fr«e. I do not expect 
the Union to be dissolved — I 
do not expect tlie house to 
fall — but 1 do expect it will 
cease to bo divided. It will 
become all one thing or all 
the other." 



Jiesohction adopted at the 
Chicago Convention. 
"That to the Union of the 
states (half slave and half 
free) this nation owes its un- 
precedented iucreasi- in pop- 
ulation — its siuprihiug de- 
velopment of material re- 
sources — its rapid augmen- 
tation of wealth — its happi- 
ness at home and its honor 
abroad; and Wi hold in ab- 
horrence all schemes for 
Disunion, come from wliat- 
ever source they may. * * 
And wo denounce those 
threats of disunion, in case 
of a popular overthrow of 
their ascendancy, as deny- 
ing the vital principles of a 
free government, and as an 
avowal of contemplated trea- 
son, which it is tlie impera- 
tive duty of an indignant 
people sternly to rebuke and 
for ever silence." 



SUMNER OPENS THE RADICAL DALL. 

On the 4th of June following, Mr. Sumnrr 
made a violent speech in the Senate, which 
gave the key note to the purposes of the party, 
when successful. Id, concluding, he said: 

Thus, sir, speaking for freedom in KansaSjI 
11 



have spoken for freedom everytvhere^ and for 
civilization; and. as the less is contained in the 
greater, so are all arts, all sciences, all econo- 
mies, all refinement, all charities, all delights 
of life, embodied in this cause. You may re- 
ject it, but it will be only for to-day . The sac- 
red animosity between freedom and slavery can 
end only in the triumph of freedom. The same 
question will soon be carried before that high 
tribunal, supreme over Senate and Court, where 
the Judges will be counted ly millions, and 
where the judgment rendered will be the sol- 
emn charge of an aroused people, imstructing a 
new President, in the name of Freedom, to 
see that civilization receives no detriment. 

The "judges" here referred to, that could be 
"counted by millions" and which were to be the 
"high tribunal" that were to bear down and 
reign "supreme overSenate and Court," were 
the great army of Wide Awakes. 

This was letting the cat out of the bag. 
Sumner was a leader in the Republican coun- 
sels, and although' that party A as carried out 
thus far, the programme here laid down by 
Su.MNER, yet for fear it would "hurt" their 
cause pending the election, many of the radi- 
cals mildly denounced — not the doctrine — but 
its utterance at that time. The New York Post 
said: 

''No one, we presume, can fail to admire the 
ability and cogency of this address; but wheth- 
er the peculiar line of argument was called for 
at this time, or whether it will aid in the pas- 
sage of the Kansas admission bill, may admit 
of doubt. It seems to us, that its invective can 
have little other effect than to irritate the ob- 
jects of it, and to render their prejudices more 
inveterate and stubborn. Mr. Chestnut, in his 
ill-natured and ungentlemauly reply, illustrat- 
ed perhaps the truth of many of Mr. Sumner's 
remarks upon the manners of slave-masters, 
but he illustrated also the spirit in which those 
remarks are likely to be received. Few of the 
Southerners will give heed to Mr Sumner's 
convincing arrc^y of facts, while all of them 
will be repulsed and offended by the unsparing 
tcne of his criticism." 

LTpon which the Wisconsin State .Journal 
(which published Sumner's speech) remarked: 

"Mr Sumner's speech presents a very 
marked contrast to those of Mr. Seward. The 
latter is always scrupulously careful, while 
pointing out the wrong and the impolicy of 
slavery, and assailing the system with the ir- 
resistible force of his logic, not to wound and 
esperate the personal feelings of his opponents. 
The sane may be said of Mr. Lincoln. Both 
he and Mr. Seward, while their arguments are 
no less pointed and unanswerable.. than those 
of Mr. Sumner, preserve an, imperturable 
good nature and self-possession. In this way, 
without kindling the angry feelings of their op- 
ponentB to the same extent, their advocacy of 



151 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



the restriction of slavery is more formidable 
and dreaded than the more impassioned and 
rhetorical fulminations of the Senator from 
Massachusetts.'' 

t 
Thus, it will be seen,, that neither of these 
papers speak against Mr. Sumner's declared 
policy, but they only regret that he could not 
have better concealed the purpose of his party. 
All this is in keeping, as we have charged, 
with the original design of that party to de- 
stroy the Union — to break over the law and 
"triumph" over the ruins of the Constitution. 

THE OTHER CLASS OF DISUNIONISTS . 

The following letters from two notable dis- 
unionists will show schemes similar in object 
and management to the disunionists of the 
North: 

"Selma, near Winchester, (Va.,) Sept. 30, 1S56. 

'■'■My dear Sir: — I have a letter from Wise 
of the 27th, full of spirit. He says the 
Governors of North Carolina, South Caroli- 
na and Louisiana, have already agreed to the 
rendezvous at Raleigh, and others will — this 
in your most private ear. He says further, 
that he had officially requested you to ex- 
change with Virginia, on fair terms of differ- 
ence, percussion for flint muskets. I don't 
know the usuage or power of the Department 
in such cases, but, if it can be done, even by 
liberal construction, I hope you will accede. 

"Was there not an appropriation at the last 
session for converting tiiut into percussion 
arms? If so, would it not furnish good reasons 
for extending such facilities to the States? — 
Virginia probably has more arms than the 
Southern States, and would divide in case of 
need. In a letter, yesterday, to a Committee 
in South Carolina, I gave it as my judgment, 
in the event of Freemonfs election, that the 
South should not pause, but proceed at once 
to "immediate, absolute, and eternal separa- 
tion." So I am a candidate for the first hal- 
ter. Wise says his accounts from Philadel- 
phia are cheering for Old Buck in Pennsylva- 
nia. I hope they may not be delusive. Vale 
et salacte. 
Colonel iiAvii. J. M. MASON. 

"Montgomery, Juue 15, 1S.58. 

"Dear Sir: Your kind favor of the 15th is 
received. I hardly agree with you that a gen- 
eral movement can be made that will clear out 
thp Augean stable. If the Democracy were 
over; hrown it would result in giving place to 
a grc :ter and hungrier swarm of flies. 

■'The remedy of the south is not in such a 
process. It is a diligent organization of her 
true men for prompt resistance to the next ag- 
gression. It must come in the nature of things. 
No nationnl ^arty can save us; no sfectional 
party can • 'er do it But if we can do as our 
fathers did — organize 'Committees of Safety' 
all over the cotton States (and it is only in 
them that w • can hope for any eS"ective move- 



ment) — we shall fire the Southern heart, in- 
struct the Southern mind, give courage to each 
other, and, at the proper moment, by one or- 
ganized concerted action, we can precipitate the 
cotton Slates into revolution. 

"The idea has been shadowed forth in the 
South by Mr. RufEn; has been taken up and 
recommedded in the Advertiser, (the Montgom- 
ery organ of Mr. Yancey, ) under the name of 
'League of the Southerners,' irho, keeping up 
their old party relations on all other questions, 
will hold the Southern issue paramount, and 
will influence parties, Ltyislatures, and States- 
men . I have no time to enlarge, but to sug- 
gest merely. 

"Ill haste- yours, &c. ^Y . L. YA^■CEY. 

"To James S. Slaughter, Esq." 

Now, let the candid reader compare these 
fulminations with that of Charles Sumner, 
and tell us, if he can, that one is less guilty 
than the other. 

The following, from the Chicago Tribune, is 
off the same piece of treason with the rebel 
letters above: 

"Give us a rebel victory, let our enemies be 
destroyed, Maryland conquered, Washington 
captured, the President exiled, and the Gov- 
ernment destroyed; give us these and any 
other calamities that can result from defeat and 
ruin, sooner than a victory with McClellan as 
General.'' 

Can any one doubt, on reading such articles 
as these, the tre.".sonable purposes of the x'adi- 
cal party? 

the Chittenden resolution — object ^y 

THE WAR declared. 

Early in the war, Congress, the authorita- 
tive mouth piece of the nation, passed, with 
only two dissenting votes, the Crittenden Hes- 
olution, which pledged the country as to the 
objects and purposes of the war on the part of 
the North. The resolution reads as follows: 

'■'■Resolved, by Ihe House of Representatives 
of the Congress of the United States, That the 
present deplorable civil war has been forced 
upon the country by the disunionists of the 
Southern States, now in arms against the con- 
stitutional government, and in arms around the 
Capitol; that in this National emergency. Con- 
gress, banishing all feeling of passion or re- 
sentment, will recollect its duty to the whole 
country; that this war is not waged on their 
part, in any spirit of oppression, or for any 
purpose of conquest or subjugation, or pur- 
poses of overthrowing or interfering with the 
rights or established institutions of those states, 
but to defend and maintain the supremacy of 
the constitution, and to preserve the Union 
with all the dignity, equality and rights of the 
several States, unimpaired, and that as soon as 
these objects are accomplished, the war ought 
to cease.'^ 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK 



155 



This was the pledge given by the Republican 
Congress. It was all the Democrats asked. 
Under that pledge they did not stop to enquire 
who elected Mr. Lincoln, or what were his 
political views. It was enough for them to 
know that their country was imperiled, and 
that they were required to fight in its defence 
— not merely to shed their blood that the 
White House might remain unmolested, that a 
certain man might occupy it for four years — 
not merely to protect any given measure rel- 
ative to land or territory, but to preserve and 
defend the institutions of our country — the 
"supremacy of the constitution." 

THE PROCLAMATION — EMANCIPATION. 

But, no sooner had Congress voluntarily of- 
fered this pledge to the country, and the. armies 
of the Union having been voluntarily filled — 
and to spare — on the strength of that pledge — 
than the radicals raised a hue and cry for a 
(^ proclamation abolishing slavery, and thus ta 
violate the congressional pledge not to "inter- 
fere with the established institutions" of the 
South. 

The radicals claimed the issuance of this 
proclamation as a "military necessity." They 
offered no fact or arguments to show that it 
would do any good, so far as aiding our armies 
to quell the rebellion — they only asserted, with- 
out proof, that such would be its result. But, 

THE GREAT SECRET OF THE PROCL.iMATION 

was to break down the unajiimity at the North. 
So powerful and universal was the sentiment 
for the war to preserve the Government, that it 
was likely to soon overthrow the Southern re- 
bels. This would not do. The war mur,t not 
end too soon. Why? Because slavery and the 
Union might still exist. Hence, the proclama- 
tion was wanted — not to crush the South — hut 
to divide the North — unite the South, and make 
union impossible! 

"Thank God," says Phillips, "for BuU 
Run." How often have we heard similar ex- 
pressions from the leaders of that party of sim- 
ilar import, and does this not all prove the 
very essance of our charge, that tht' radicals 
gloried in reverses to our armies, as the best 
means to finally accomplish their di inolical 
purpose of dissolving the Union? Doe-; it not 
show that Douglas in his last speech in the 
Senate was correct, when he charged that the 
Republicans desired dissolution, provided it 



could be accomplished, and not directly make 
them chargeable for the result? 

The radicals knew the issuing of the procla- 
mation would divide the North and unite the 
South, and hence they clamored for it as the 
means to accomplish dissolution. They pre- 
tended to urge that measure as a "military ne- 
cessity," and affected to believe that it would 
soon end ttie rebellion, yet when read by the 
light of subsequent events, the reader cannot 
fail to see the treasonable motive. 

THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE ON THE PROCLAMA- 
TION. 

As a specimen of the great things claimed 
for the proclamation, we give the following 
seven reasons: 

[From the N. Y. Tribune. Aug. 13, 1S62.J 

"1st. The hearty good will of three millions 
of people now doing the necessary work of the 
rebellion. Ignorant, degraded, imbruited, as 
many of them are, these three millions of 
Southerntrs uniformly, intensely desire to be 
free. Assure them that they will be free from 
the moment they escape from their masters to 
us, and they will begin at once to watch their 
opportunities for absconding. Even though but 
few should at first succeed in escaping, many 
will attempt it, and the rebel masters of all 

will be rendered suspicious and uneasy. 

Thousands will be diverted from shooting Union 
soldiers, to watching suspected slaves — to the 
great adveantage of the Union cause. 

"2d._ Negroes by the thousands can at once 
be enlisted to scout, spy, cook, dig, chop and 
team for the Union cause, and to jight for it 
also, if we choose They will ask no bounty. 
They will not flee to Canada to escape a draft; 
they will wait for their pay, so that they be fed 
and armed and set to work for the liberation of 
their brethren. One hundred thousand of 
them can at once be usefully employed in the 
Union armies, even though they do not fio-ht. 
And we cannot doubt, that ten black regiments, 
with arms and equipment?: for twenty or thirty- 
more would excite more alarm amono'the rebels 
of any cotton or sugar growing sel^tion than 
twice as many white ones. 

"3d. The liberal sentiment of Christendom 
would be fixed and intensified on the side of 
the Union by such a decree. At present, any 
champion of the rebel cause, who rises to speak 
in Parliament or elsewhere, begins by sol- 
emnly asservating that slavery has nothing to 
do with the contest— that the North is fighting 
for slavery as well as the South, and quoting 
our dispatches, resolves and speeches to sus- 
tain that position. A decree of emancipation \. 
would effectually squelch that falsehood. And "^ 
the approbation of the good is a genu'ne power. 
No foreign country but Dahomey would venture 
to side with the Davis Confederacy, if it were 
made clear that it was fighing for slavery 
while we were fighting against it. Now, moral' 



156 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



if not physical intervention to our prejudice, is 
a serious, and by no means a remote, danger. 

"4th. Hundreds of thousands «f true patri- 
ots would sacrifice property, ease, luxury, 
safety itself, for the Union cause, with a free- 
dom and joy yet unknown, if they could real- 
ize that in so doing they were certainly aiding 
to rid their beloved country evermore of the 
curse and blight of slavery. 

"5th. Thousands of dangerous and noble 
spirits would flock from every christian laud 
to fight for liberty and Union, who feci but a 
languid interest in a struggle for the Union 
alone. 

"6th. Scores of army officers whose hearts 
are with the rebels, have threatened to resign 
if (in their phraseology) this "is made an ab- 
olition war." Some would do it, and this 
would be an immense gain to our cause. Had 
Gen. Patterson done this a week before Bull 
Run, the rebellion would have been long since 
extinguished. The disaster at Ball's Bluff 
would have been averted by the resignation 
of a few officers of this sort. 

"7th. Finally, having identified the Union 
cause irrevocably with that of humanity, (?) 
justice and universal freedom, we might rev- 
erently look for the blessing of God to crown 
our efforts with success — and would hardly 
look in vain." 

[From the New York Tribune, Aug. 22, 1S62.] 
"Let it be proclaimed to-morrow from the 
White House, and re-echoed from every Union 
camp, that every slave fleeing to us from the 
rebels is thenceforth a freeman, and the knell 
of treason will have. been sounded. 

"Let every fagitive who comes to us from 
Jeffdom, be welcomed as a freeman, and the 
ivar cannot last till Christmas." 

[From the New York Tribune, Sept. 6, 1SG2.] 
"With such a policy the traitors must be 
called, in good p.art, from their armies, to d:- 
f end and secure titeir own firesides. With such 
a policy [the proclamation] our troops will 
never lack information, but will be abundantly 
pi'ovided with guides, scouts and spies. AVith 
such a policy, in good faith adopted, and thor- 
oughly carried out, we believe that sixty days 
iDOuld amply suffice to break the back-bone of 
the slave-holder's rebellion.^' 

[From the Xsw York Tribune, Sept. 2-4, 1802— after the 
Proclamation.] 

"By a single blow he [the President] has 
palsied the right arm of the rebellion. Slave- 
ry is the root of the rebellion: be digs it up by 
Ttho roots. The Proclamation of Emancipation 
ivill briny out the full strength, and the Union 
as it should be, will date from the day of its 
consummation." 
[From the Janesville CWis.) Gazette, summer of 1S02.] 
"Can he (the President) not see, as we see, 
that a Proclamation of Emancipation, made 
last spring, and an invitation to the slaves to 
come to our armies, would so have unsettled the 
social fabric of the South, as to have prevented 
the cultivation of their crops for food, and pro- 



duced such alarm in the minds of Jeff Davis' 
soldiers that they would havafled homeward to 
save their families," §'C. 

The Waukesha (Wis.) Freeman, just previ- 
ous to the issuing of the Proclamation, said: 

"But let the slaves be confiscated or freed, 
and the rebellion icill be killed stone deai in a 
fortnight " 

The Boston Liberator thus issued its threat- 
ening fiat to force the issuance of the Procla- 
mation: 

"The men who are sending out, within a 
single year, more than a million and a quarter 
of their fellows to dare the dangers of the bat- 
tlefield, and who have not winced under the 
prospective taxation which must follow the ex- 
penditure of a thousand millions of money, all 
for the maintenance of the instituti'ons wliich 
our fathers established, though they may not 
now betray the anger and loathing which the 
new propositions excite, or the contempt which 
the coivardice of the Administratio^i inspires, 
will, when the hour of trial comes, show these 
bad men who, like thieves at a fire,'' &c. 

Now, the facts which subsequent history has 
developed, do not confirm the good things pro- 
phesied of the Proclamation, and it is a won- 
derful stretch of charity to believe those who 
uttered them had any confidence in their state- 
ments. 

THE tope's BULL AGAINST THE COMET. 

To show that even the President himself 
had no confidence that any good could come | 
from his proclamation, we quote as follows 
from his declaration to the Chicago Divines, 
who called upon him as a religious body, to 
add the force of religion to fanaticism. This 
was but a few days previous to the issuing of 
the proclamation. The President said : 

"What good would a proclamation of eman- 
cipation from me do, especially as we are now 
situated? I do not want to issue a document 
that the world will see must necessarily be in- 
operative, like the Pope's bull against the . 
comet. Would my word free the slaves, when 
I cannot even enforce the Constitution in the 
rebel states? Is there a single court, or magis- 
trate, or individual that would be influenced 
by it there? And what reason is there to think 
it would have any greater effect upon the slaves 
than the late law of Congress, which I approv- 
ed, and which offers protection and fredlom 
to the slaves of rebel masters who come with- 
in our lines. Yet I cannot learn that that law 
has caused a single slave to come over to us. — 
And suppose they could be induced, by a 
proclamation of freedem from me to throw 
themselves upon us, ivhat shall ice do with 
themi How can we feed and care for such a 
multitude? General Butler wrote me, a few 



t 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK. 



157 



days since, that he was issuing more rations to 
J slaves who have rushed to him than all the 
I white troops under his command. They eat, 
* and that is all." 

Of course, no sane man could see any good 
to the Union cause that could possibly result 
from the emancipation. Our armies had been 
successful almost everywhere. The Union ar- 
mies had been successful prior to the 22d of 
September, the date of the proclamation, in 
ninety-four battles and heavy skirmishes, and 
had lost but eight, with two drawn battles. 
The rebels had been nearly driven out of Mis- 
souri, Arkansas, Kentucky, West Tennessee, a 
portion of Mississippi, the forts below New 
Orleans, and tliat city itself, together with 
Baton Rouge, had fallen into our hands. The 
■whole North Carolina coast, with Beaufort, S. 
C, — sundry places of importance in Georgia — 
the Florida coast — the Potomac cleared of ob- 
structions — the rebel army driven from the 
Peninsula, and Washington was not menaced 
by any adequate force for its reduction. In 
short, everything was going on smoothly for 
the Union cause. But this was just what the 
Radicals did not want. They desired to divide 
the North, so as to make union more improb- 
able, and they set about every means in their 
power to accomplish this result. They coaxed, 
flattered, denounced and prophesied. They 
were not satisfied to let well enough alone, but 
the Union must be divided, and they saw that 
could not be done without dividing the North. 
They knew the proclamation and other revolu- 
tionary, to say nothing of unconstitutiona 
measures, would do it. 

Horace Greekey pledged 900,000 troops to 
leap forth the moment the proclamation should 
see the light. 

GOV. Andrew's conditions. 

tGov. Andrew was appealed to by the War 
Department for troops, in great haste. The 
order is signed by Adjutant General Thomas, 
and dated May 19, '62, and directed to Gov. 
Andrew: 

"The Secratary of War desires te know 
how soon you can raise and organize three or 
four infantry regiments, and have them ready 
to be forwarded here, to be armed and equip- 
ped. Please answer immediately, &c. 

To which the Governor responds under the 
above date: 

"A call sudden and unexpected, finds me 
without materials for an intelligent reply. — 
Our youeg men are all pre-occupied with other 



views. Still, if a real call for three regiments 
is made, I believe we can raise them in forty 
days. The arms and equipments would need 
to be furnished here. Our people have never 
marched without them. They go into camp 
while forming into regiments, and are drilled 
and practiced with arms and march as soldiers. 
To attempt the other course would be to damp- 
en enthusiasm and make these men feel that 
they were not soldiers, but a mob. Again, if 
our people feel that they are going into the 
South to heJp fight rebe's who will kill and de- 
stroy them by all means known to savages, as 
well as civilized men, who will deceive them 
by fr idulent flags of truce, and lying preten- 
ses, as they did the Massachusetts boys at 
Williamsburg, and will use their negro slaves 
against them, both as laborers and fighting 
men, while they themselves must never fire at 
the enemy's magazines. I think they will feel 
the draft is heavy on their patriotism; but if 
the President will sustain Gen. Hunter, recog- 
nize all men, even black men, as legally capa- 
ble of that loyalty the blacks are wanting to 
manifest, and let them fight, God and human 
nature on their side, the roads will swarm, if 
need be, with multitudes whom New England 
would pour out to obey your call. Always 
ready to do my utmost, I remain, most faith- 
fully, 

Your obedient servant 
(Signed,) JNO. A. ANDREW." 

Well, the Proclamation was issued — the 
thing was fixed to the Governor's liking — the 
roads didn't "swarm" with the "multitudes" 
promised. But the subsequent chapter in this 
Abolition drama may be read in the following 
telegraphic dispatches : 

EXTRA SESSION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS LEG- 
ISLATURE — GOV. Andrew's message. 

Boston, Nov. 11, 1863. 

The extra session of the Massachusetts Leg- 
islature assembled at noon, to-day. 

Governor Andrew, in his message, reviews 
the legislative acts regarding bounties for re- 
cruits, and says: 

" It lias been represented to me by officers engaged in 
tlie recruiting service, as well as by many citizens and 
magistrates, that these bounties do not offer sufficient pe- 
cuniary inducements to enable the required number to 
be raised within the two months which scarcely remain 
to us. 

" At the request of several municipal governments, and 
of divers pairiotic and public spirited people of the com- 
monwealth, I have, therefore, called together the general 
court for the simple and special purpose of devising plans 
to secure the contingent of volunteers assigned to Massa- 
chusetts, and to take such action in the promises as in its 
wisdom may be found expedient." 

"In relation to volunteering Governor An- 
drew says: 

"I am prepared, therefore, to assist in committing tho 
commonwealth to a policy for the payment of regular 
wages to the Massachusetts volunteers in addition to all 
other pay allowances, bounties, and advantages hitherto 
enjoyed." 

"The employment of colored soldiers is 
strongly advocated in the address, and the brav- 
ery of the Fifty-fourth Massachustett's colored 



158 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



regiment in making the assaultupon Fort Wag- 
ner is eloquently referred to in proof of their 
fitness for infantry service. 

Boston, Xovemljer 11. 

"In the legislature to-day the governor's ad- 
dress was referred to a special legislative com- 
mittee, which met immediately after the House 
adjourned. 

"A bill was introduced proposing to give all 
soldiers who hereafter enlist or re-enlist twen- 
ty dollars per month from the State Treasury 
instead of the bounties now offered. Action 
upon this proposition was deferred until to- 
morrow." 

' So, it seems after all, that money lies at the 
bottom of Massachusetts patriotism. What a 
commentory on the "'Bull against the comet." 
But, we have another from Greeley, just 
previous to the "Bull against the Comet." 

"Leading men from the East and the West 
alike express grave doubts whether their states 
will promptly furnish their respective quotas of 
men under the forthcoming call of the Presi- 
dent. There would be no difficulty, they say, 
if the people were sure that the war was to be 
conducted with a single eye to the suppression 
of the rebellton, whether slavery went down 
with that which it caused or not. 

"A war for the maintenance of slavery, as 
this seems in some quarters to be — a war in 
which the recruiting officers are instructed to 
accept no loyal men whose complexions are 
dark — is not one tiiey think likely to make en- 
listments rapid. Some name sixty or ninety 
days as the periods within which it will be pos- 
sible to raise the number required, while others 
say that their citizens will demand an anti- 
slavery policy before they will fill up the regi- 
ments." 

MR. SEWARD PROVES THE PROCLAMATIOX UN- 
COXSTITUTIOXAL. 

Mr. Seward, in his letter of instructions to 
Minister Adams, in April, 1861, said: 

"The condition of slavery in the several 
states will remain just the same, whether the 
revolution succeeds or fails. There is not even 
a pretext for the complaint that the disaffected 
states are to be conquered by the U. S., if the 
revolution fail ; for the rights of the states, and 
the condition of every human being in them, 
will remain subject exactly to the same laws 
and forms of administration, whether the revo- 
lution shall succeed, or whether it shall fail. — 
In the one case, the states would be federally 
connected with the new Confederacy; in the 
other they would, as now, be members of the 
U. S.; but their constitutions and laws, cus- 
toms, habits and institutions, in either case, 
will remain the same. 

"It is hardly necessary to add to this incon- 
testible statement the further fact that the new 
President, as well as the citizens through whose 
suffrages he came into the administration, has 



always repudiated all desire whatever, wherever 
imputed to him of them, of disturbing the sys- 
tem of slavery as it is existing under the Con- 
stitution and laws. The case, however, would 
not be fully presented if I were to omit to say 
that any such effort on his part would be un- 
constitutional, and all his actions in this di- 
rection would be prevented by the judicial au- 
thority, even though they were assented to by 
Congress and the people." ^ 

Was Mr. Seward a traitor — a Copperhead — 
when he penned these instructions? 



CHARTER XXV. 

DISLOYALTY AND "TREASON" OF THE RADICALS, 

How tho Radicals -"Opposed tbe Govercment" before the 
Proclamation. ..Parker Pilisbury..."New York Times" 
Before and After tbe Election. .."New York Post" "Op- 
poses the Government". .."New York Times" Again... 
"Chicago Tribune" Denounces the President. ..Wiscon- 
sin Hume League on "Imbecility and Cowardice". ..Pre- 
dictions of "New York Tribune". ..Democratic Pretlict- 
ions...Gov. Stone admits this an "Abolition War"... A 
Short Tack afterthe Gale of lSi32..."New York Tribune" 
...More Prophesies by False Prophets. ..Wendell Phillips 
as a Prophet... "New York Post" as a Propbet... "Nation- 
al Intelligencer" a True Prophet. ..Gov. Andrew's Proph- 
esies... "New Y'ork Tribune's" Prophesies. ..The "900,- 
000," (tc... Remarks of "National Intelligencer" on 
Same. ..Tho Proclamation in a Nut Shell. ..Belief in the 
Proclamation a Test of Loyalty. ..Forney Thereon. ..Sen- 
ator Wilson's Address. .."Disloyalty" of "Janesville, 
(Wis.) Gazette". .."Waukesha, (Wis.) Freeman". .."New 
York Tribune"' on "Blunders". ..Wendell Phillips on tho 
"Lickspittle Administration"... "Milwaukee Sentinel" 
Disloyal to the "Government"... "Slate Journal" Ditto 
...Phillips Again. ..Beecher on the "Government".. ..Tes- 
timony of Senator Browning. .."Milwaukee Wisconsin" 
Tbiows a Javelin at Seward. .."Chicago Tribune" Cor- 
rects Old Abe... "New York Independent" on the Ad- 
ministration... "New York Times" Scores the "Govern- 
ment". .."Chicago Tribune" Ditto... "Milwaukee Senti- 
nel" 'Ditto...." Buffalo Express" Ditto..." Pittsburgh 
Chronicle" Ditto.... "Anti-Slavery Standard" Ditto... 
"New York Post" on "Mistakes," &c...The Loyal Sia- 
mese Twins. .."New York Tribune" on "Cabbage Head" 
Ualleek. 

HOW THE RADICALS OPPOSED THE "GOVERN- 
MENT" BEFORE THE PROCLAMATION. 

Since we have heard so much about "disloy- 
alty" and the charge of "copperheadism" 
against everybody that did not endorse all the 
measures and policies of the "Government," 
we will here present some specimens of abuse 
and opposition to the "Government," so that 
the style of then radicals may be know when 
they were displeased with the policy. 

Parker Pills bury, whom the Republicans 
have so tenderly petted, thus vented his spleen 
and "discouraged enlistments," for which the 
administration never even talked of having him 
arrested and sent over the lines: 

"Hasten back to a recognition of your own 
manhood — of your divine origin and destiny. — 
Believe yourselves too sacred to be shot down 
like dogs by Jefi'. Davis and his myrmidons, 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



159 



and all in the cause of slavery! Die, rather at 
home, in the arms of loving mothers and affec- 
tionate sisters. Nay, be shot down, if you 
must, at home, and die like a Christian, and 
have a decent burial, rather than go and die in 
the cause of a Union and a Government based 
on slavery, which should never have been form- 
ed, and which are blistered all over with the 
curses of God for wrongs, outrazes and cruel- 
ties it has inflicted on millions of his poor chil- 
dren. Speak in tones of thunder to the Gov- 
ernment, until it hear, and declares a policy 
and purpose of such a character as that, if you 
must die in battle, it shall at least be in the 
cause of justice andlibert3'.''' 

Did Vjillandigham ever utter treason like 
this? No, never! But, Parker Pillsbury 
don't vote the Democratic ticket, which makes 
all the difference in the world. 

BEFORE AND AFTER THE ELECTION. 

Before the election the New York Times (Ab- 
olition) declared that opposition to the procla- 
mation was infidelity to the Government. After 
the election it talks in this wise: 

"The heaviest loads which the friends of 
the Government have been compelled to carry 
through this canvass has been the inactivity 
and inefficiency of the Administration. We 
speak from a knowledge of public sentiment in 
every section of the State, when we say that 
the failure of the Government to prosecute the 
war with the vigor, energy and success which 
the vast resources at its command warranted 
the country in expecting at its hands, has 
weighed like an incubus upon the public heart. 
With every disposition to sustain the Govern- 
ment — with the most profound conviction that 
the only hope of the country lies in giving it a 
cordial and effective support — its friends have 
been unable to give a satisfactory answer to 
the questions that have come up from every 
side: Why has the war made so little progress? 
Why have our splendid armies achieved such 
splendid successes? AVhy have they lain idle 
so long, and why have the victories they have 
won been so utterly barren of decisive results? 
The war has dragged on for a year and a half. 
The country has given the Government over a 
million of men, and all the money they could 
possibly use; yet we have made scarcely any 
progress toward crushing the rebellion. The 
rebel armies still menace the capital. The 
privateers defy our navy, and spread increas- 
ing terror among our peaceful traders on the 
,seas. What is the use of trying to suhtain an 
administration tvhich lays so far behind the 
country, and seems so indifferent and incompe- 
tent to the dreadful taski committed to its 
hands p' 

The world does move. 

[From the New York Post, Radical Rep.] 

"A little more than a year ago, the oeorile 
of every loyal state rushed together wun un- 
paralleled unanimittj and entnusiasm to devote 



'their lives, their fortunes and sacred honors,' 
to the support of the ^^overnment and the main- 
tenance of the innj,i-ity of the nation. That 
this was no transient outburst of ieeling, but 
the utterance of :i calm and determined pur- 
pose; has been proved by their persistent and 
indefatigable efforts to accomplish even more 
than they had p-'.mised. They have twice 
given to the authoiiiics an army of over half a 
million of men; the) have opened their purses 
and allowed those authorities to take money as 
it was wanted: and they, have submitted to de- 
rangements of business, to a currency of stick- 
ing plasters, to heavy taxation, and to disasters 
in the field, and not merely with patience and 
without dismay, but with a cheerfulness and 
hope for the future that has enlisted the won- 
der of Eurorie, and finds no example in the an- 
nals of any other nation. 

"All this arose from the sincere, earnest and 
invincible devotion of the people to their in- 
stitutions and particularly to that Union by 
which these institutions are guaranteed and 
vivified. But that devotion is no less strong 
now than it was a year and a half ago; we are 
still forwarding troops to the army; we are still 
contributing money, we are still determined 
that the rebellion shall be suppressed; and we 
are still confident that no power on earth, 
neither our own divisions nor the malignant 
hatred of the old monarchies, will succeed iu 
separating this once proud and harmonious re- 
public into a multitude of factions and warring 
states. What, then, means the singular revo- 
lution of political sentiment which is testified 
by the elections in nearly all the middle states? 
Are Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania and 
Nejw York weary of the war? Are they willing 
to say to the states in rebellion, "Wayward 
sisters, go in peace!" Are they ready to con- 
fess that all their past efforts have been cause- 
less and in vain, and to recall their gallant' 
soldiers from the battle field? Not at all — not 
at all! But they do say, in emphatic and im- 
perative tones, that they are wholly dissatis- 
fied with the manner in which the war has been 
conducted." 

It is refreshing to get a glimpse of so much 
truth and candor in a Radical Abolition paper: 

A little further on, the same paper in sum- 
ming up the causes that have led to the defeat 
of the Administration audits policy, remarks: 

"Let the authorities at Washington be re- 
buked significantly, it is said on all sides, and 
they will do better for the future. 

"We trust they will ; we trust the incidents 
of the day have impressed upon their minds 
two solemn and important lessons: First, that 
war, when it has been undertaken, is to be 
fought as war, according to war principles, and 
not as politics, according to the interests of lo- 
calities or classes, or the schemes of wily in- 
triguers and managers. The mistake of the 
administration, from the beginning has been 
that it has regarded the war not as a deadly 
ana inevita'rle encounter between two forms of 
society struggling lor :.ie mastery of a conti- 



160 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



nent, but as a neighborliood feud, which must 
end in a compromise, mutual conciliation, and 
& final shaking of hands." 

SUPPORTING THE "GOVERNMENT." 

When any Democrat criticises any act or 
measure of the Administration, its organs send 
up one united chorus of "copperhead opposi- 
tion to the government." The Democracy 
throw no obstacles in the way of necessary war 
measures — indeed, they have from the start, 
aided all such war measures in every possible 
way, But in the beginning, when the danger 
of losing our national capital was imminent, 
the radical press were savage on the "govern- 
ment." The New York Times is one of this 
class. It daily abused and threatened the 
President until he changed his policy; but now 
it is foremost in denunciations against all who 
complain of any act or measure, no matter 
how despotic and subversive of our liberties, 
We copy the following as a remonstrance: 

[From tbe \e\v York Times, April 24, 1861. J 
It is stated on the 'authority of Mayor Brown, 
of Baltimore, that the President has consented 
that no more troops shall pass through Mary- 
land, and that a regiment from Pennsylvania 
has been turned back pursuant to this arrange- 
ment. Our correspondent gives a very differ- 
ent account of the decision of the President. 
It is possible the iNlayor's account may not be 
entirely reliable. 

"Under this belief we abstain from such 
comments as such an agreement on the part of 
the President would naturally provoke. We 
-will simply remark that the President runs no 
small risk of being superceded in his office, if 
he undertakes to thwart the clear and manifest 
determination of the people to maintain the 
authority of the government of the United 
States, and to protect its honor. We are in the 
midst of a revolution, and in such emergencies, 
the people are -very apt to find some represen- 
tative leader, if the forms of law do not hap- 
pen to have given them one. It would be well 
for Mr. Lincoln to bear in mind the possibility 
of such an event." 

THE PRESIDEKT DENOUNCED AS THE AUTHOR 
OF THE NEGRO RIOTS. 

The Chicago Tribune^ a sheet that has said 
more unmanly and libelous things against those 
who felt it their duty to fairly criticise the acts 
and policy of the Administration, than any 
other paper in the land, thus inserted its 
"Copperhead" fangs in Old Abo, because he 
did not "bow and scrape," and act the excess- 
ive genteel to a lot of negroes that called upon 
him in 1861. 

"The interview between the President and 



the representatives of the colored race, in 
which they are honestly told that we cannot 
tolerate them among us, that they must leave 
our communities and seek a home elsewhere, 
constitutes a wide and gloomy backf/round of 
which the foreground is made up of the riots 
and disturbances ivhich have disgraced within 
a short time past our northern cities. It is 
the last struggle of oppression and chattelism. 
It is the attempt to construct and patch anew 
the quaking Bastile of the negro drivers by 
saying t© its victims that as freemen they can 
be received nowhere. That with them it must 
be slavery or a worse degradation. 

The Wisconsin Home League^ a radical sheet, 
thus alludes to the President's order revoking 
the suppression of the Chicago Times: 

"Compared with the wicked and pestiferous 
Chicago Times., Vallandigham is a pure and 
spotless Saint ; and for the President to revoke 
the order suppressing the Times and not re- 
call the Ohio traitor, is indicative of imbecili- 
ty or cowardice, or both. An Administration 
that succumbs to its powerful enemies, and 
punishes its weak ones, deserves the contempt 
and pity of all brave and honorable men. 

GKEELEy's PREDICTION OF GOOD THINGS. 

The New York Tribune of September 27, 

1862, five days after the first Proclamation, put 
on record the following predictions, which need 
only a comparison with the actual facts, to 
make them appear ridiculous and absurd: 

"1. We predict that the 1st of January, 

1863, will prove a most important and auspi- 
cious era in the history of the country. 

"2. We predict that Jeff Davis will think 
twice before he gives effect to his well known 
purpose of denuding the Cotton States of their 
able bodied whites, up to the age of even fifty 
years, in order to hurl them on the Union 
armies along the frontier. 

"3. We predict that it will be found much 
easier to induce the slaves on the great plan- 
tations to stop work next Christmas for their 
annual saturnalia, than to go back to their 
unpaid tasks on the morning after New Year's. 

DEMOCRATIC PREDI«TI0NS. 

The following predictions by the Chicago 
Times, just after the Proclamation, when read 
by the light of subsequent history, demonstrate 
the fact that Democrats had a clearer percep- 
tion of the effect of the Proclamation than their 
opponents. These predictions are a sample of 
the universal predictions of the Democratic 
masses, everywhere. 

"No President of the United States has ever 
received a more generous, sincere and earnest 
popular support than President Lincoln re- 
ceived in the prosecution of the war, from the 
Democratic party, up to the issuing of the 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



161 



Emancipation Proclamation. The support was 
without condition save in one respect. The 
sole condition was, that the war should be con- 
ducted to the end, as it had been professedly 
undertaken, /o7- the preservation of the consti- 
tution and the restoration of the Union, with 
all the rights to the states unimpaired. 

"This generous, earnest and sincere support 
has not yet been wholly withdrawn, though it 
must be confessed it has been greatly diminish- 
ed. It has not yet been wholly withdrawn, be- 
cause the Proclamation of the 22d of Septem- 
ber was only preliminary, and the threatened 
manifesto on the Ist of January, might be 
withheld. 

"If the threatened manifesto shall be issued, 
it will change the whole character of the war. 
[A truth that subsequent history has vindi- 
cated.] It will make it a war to destroy the 
constitution and the Union. [True, again] 
It will make it a war not only of subversion of 
the political constitution of the country, but 
sudden, radical and inevitably ruinous in the 
industrial and social relations of the people. 
[This has been proved too true.] It will make 
it a war to liberate and enfranchise four mil- 
lions of semi-savage negroes, and to establish 
them as the people of the sovereign States." 

The truth of this h-s been admitted. Read 
the remarks of Gov. Stone, of Iowa, in a pre- 
vious chapter, when he declares: 

"I admit this is an abolition war." 

A SHORT TACK AFTER THE GALE OF 18tl2. 

The radicals, after the fall elections of 1862, 
began to fear that the proclamation was work, 
ing badly for their main purpose — that it was 
likely to wrench power from th^jr hands, and 
thus present the consummation of their desires 
to break up the Union, began to haul in their 
horns, and to claim that the proclamation would 
have no effect on the status of Southern insti- 
tutions, and this is the way the New York Tri- 
bune states the case: 

"Our original conviction, that our Govern- 
ment is to-day at perfect liberty to accept the 
unconditional return to loyalty of any state or 
states now in rebellion, and that those states 
will thereupon become supreme over their inhab- 
itants not in the service of the United States, his 
been nowise shaken, nor do we perceive a ne- 
cessity for any new arguments to establish it." 

About the same date the Albany Journal 
echoed the same note: 

"If this position is right, slavery in the 
states will be in no way affected by the procla- 
mation, but that institution will be as complete- 
ly re-established, under the reconstructed 
Union, as if the proclamation had never been 
issued." 



MORE PROPHECIES FROM FALSE PROPHETS. 

The great Hebrew law giver, in reply to the 
question: '■'■How shall we know the word 
which tie Lord hath spoken?" replied: 

"When a prophet speaketh in the name of 
the Lord, if the thing follow not nor come to 
pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not 
spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it pre- 
sumptuously; thou shalt not be afraid of him." 

" 'When wicked men make promises of truth, 
'Tis weakness to believe them." 

[Howard's Scanderhurg . 

Let us apply the test of the Hebrew lawyer 
to the speech of Wendell Phillips, Feb. 17, 
1861, wherein he prophecied: 

"The South cannot make war on any one. — 
Suppose the fifteen states hang together a year 
— which is almost an impossibility: 

"1st. They have given bonds in two thous- 
and millions of dollars — the value of their 
slaves — to keep the peace. 

"2d. They will have enough to do to attend 
to the irrepressible conflict at home. Virginia, 
Kentucky, Missouri, will be their Massachu- 
setts; AVinter Davis, Blair, and Cassius Clay 
their Seward and Garrison. 

"3d. The Gulf States will monopolize all the 
offices. A man must have Gulf principles to 
belong to a healthy party. Under such a lead, 
disfranchised Virginia in opposition, will not 
have much heart to attack Pennsylvania." 

If these things prophesied of have come to 
pass, let us annoint Wendell as a veritable 
prophet, if not, is it not "weakness to believe 
him?" 

THE NEW YORK POST AS A PROPHET. 

Just prior to the issuing of the Proclama- 
tion, the New York Evening Post set up 
shop as a wholesale prophet: 

"How strange that our great men and rulers 
should not see that the stomach is the weak 
point of the enemy! He will have little stom- 
ach to fight the bad fight of rebellion on an 
empty stomach. When the great words of lib- 
erty and freedom shall be sounded from the 
high-places of power like a trumpet through 
the land, the knell of the rebellion will be 
tilled. But we are asked how the negroes on 
the plantations are to be informed of such a 
decee of thi Government. How little do those 
who ask such questions know of the negro char- 
acter! The negroes are familiar with every 
swamp and mountain pass, through glen and 
forest, and at night, guided by the stars, the 
gospel of freedom would be circulated from 
cabin to cabin almost with telegraphic swift- 
ness. Theplow ivould staiid still in the furrow 
the ripened grain xvculd remain unharvested, 
the cows would not be milked, the dinners would 
not be cooked, but one universal hallelujah of 
glory to God, echoed from every valley and 



162 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



hill-top of rebeldom, would sound the speedy 
doom of treason." 

Upon which the National Intellijencer re" 
marks : 

"Have these predictions been falfiUed? And 
I yet it is on the fulfillment of such predictions 

that the anti-slavery prognosticators have sus- 
pended their repute for sagacity. 

"Reproducing such representations as these 
in our columns on the 31. st of July, 1862, be- 
fore any proclamation of freedom had been is- 
sued, we wrote as follows: 

" There is one aspect of the questioa which rather in- 
clines us to wish the President might find it compatible 
with his convictions of public duty to issue some suchs 
paper as these complainants ask at his hands. We are 
well assureil that it would prove hrutiiTn fulmen, but its 
demonstated inefficiency might perhaps open the eyes of 
amiable and sanguine philanthropists, who, until the ex- 
periment is tried, will continue to credit such representa- 
tions."' 

As we have seen, the prophet, Gov. Andrew, 
prophesied that the "roads would swarm" with 
"Erave Boys." 

The people have not yet "seen it." 

The New York Tribune of July 17, 1862, 
prophesied that 

"Our enemies must henceforth [if the Procr 
lamation be issued] devote half their strength 
to keeping the rest back." 

The people have failed to "see it." 

The same sheet of July 19, 1862, prophesied 

"A speedy and overwhelming Union tri- 
umph." 

The people have not yet "seen it." 
The same prophetic organ of August 2, 1862, 
prophesied that the proclamation would stimu- 
late — 

"three times three hundred thousand born and 
naturalized Yankees, who never smelt battle, 
all join in the grand old chorus of human na- 
ture, and its own- clear, musical, glorious, 
4^ burning, self-evident words, the old chorus of 
i liberty forever, all join in and march on, 
knowing, every blessed mother's son of them, 
that what is going to be done now is to save 
the country." 

The people have failed to "see" this grand 
outpouring of 900,000, even with all the natu- 
ral stimulants of patriotism, individual, coun- 
ty, city, state and national bounties, to say 
nothing of the thumb screws of conscription 
— iron hand cuffs and cold lead for deserters. 

The same organ, on the 6th of August, 1862, 
prophesied that the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion would 
"pierce the very vitals of the revolt." 

Does anybody "see it" in that light? 



Again, on the 8th of the same month, the 
same prophet predicted that the proclamation 
would — 

"just lift the nation right off its feet, and sur- 
prise it into one unanimous yell of enthusi- 
asm." 

We don't "see" anything of the sort yet, 
but it cannot be doubted that the slaughter 
house butcheries of Fredericksburg, December 
13, following, came very near putting the 
Union hors du combat. 

Again says this prophet, on the 11th of the 
same month, the proclamation: — 

"Would give an immediate reinforcement to 
the Union armies equal to a hundred veteran 
regiments and fifty well-served batteries?" 

If the proclamation can do all this, why did 
it not, and thus save the people the honors of 
conscription, which even with all its force has 
failed to help the proclamation out ? 

Again, on the 27th of Sept. 1862, this pro- 
phetic seer continued his predictions. 

"We predict that the sympathizers in the 
Free States with the slaveholders' rebellion 
will have hard work to keep up the courage of 
their Southerp. brethern through the next three 
months, and that earnest effoits tvill be madeby 
these compatriots to bring about an accommoda- 
tion before the day of emancipation.^^ 

Upon which the National Intelligencer re- 
marks : 

" The time has passed when each of these 
prophecies enables us to test the inspiration of 
the seer. Till 1st of January, instead of being 
a "most important and auspicious era in the 
history of our country," was x-emarkable only 
for the utterance of another paper proclama- 
tion. Instead of "thijiking twice" before de- 
nuding the Cotton States of their able-bodied 
whites," the Confederate authorities propose 
to make their conscription law still more 
stringent and comprehensive. The negroes in 
the Insurgent States, so far as we are inform- 
ed, went back to "their unpaid tasks on the 
morning after New Year's" with as much gen- 
erality and alacrity as ever. And, lastly, the 
only persons who have done hard work "to 
keep up the courage of their Southern breth- 
ren," and to put forth efforts to bring about an 
"accommodation," are the authors and abet- 
tors of propositions looking to the mediation of 
Switzerland, and avowing their readiness to 
"bow to our destiny and make the best attain- 
able peace,'''' "if three months more of earnest 
fighting shall not serve to make a serious im- 
pression on the rebels." 

"And yet these discredited prophets contin- 
ue to vexloyal citizens with their croakings, as 
though any body could stand in awe of their 
denunciations. They assure the President 



SCRAPS FEOM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



163 



that he will live to regret the decision he has 
made iu regai-d to Missouri. Assuming to be 
guides of mankind when their evei-y pretension 
to leadership has been exploded by 'the things 
that have not come to pass,' they should at least 
learn to speak with some reserve and not pro- 
voke any further inquiry into their credentials. 
We cheerfully concede to them the "liberty of 
prophesying," but, in view of the long line of 
their unfulfilled predictions, we hope it is no 
impiety to disbelieve them." 

THE PROCIiA>I.\TION IN A NUT-SHELL. 

Secretary Chase, in one of his late speech- 
es, asserts that "the rebellion would have suc- 
ceeded but for the proclamation of freedom." 
The National Inielligencer. in an elaborate dis- 
cussion of his position, presents the following 
theories which show what Mr. Chase will have 
to do in order to substantiate his assertion: 

"Slavery was everywhere destroyed by the 
hostile presence of our armies before the proc- 
lamation was issued. 

"Slavery was everywhere destroyed by the 
hostile presence of our armies since the proc- 
lamation has been issued. 

"Required to prove that it is the proclama- 
tion which destroys slavery." 

And again: 

"The hostile presence of a military force 
where the proclamation <ioes not apply, fas in 
New Orleans, for instance,) produces the de- 
struction of slavery; 

"Where the proclamation does apply, but 
■where there is no hostile presence of military 
forces, (as in Alabama) slavery remains undis- 
turbed. 

"Required to prove that it is tH proclama- 
tion which damages slavery." 

BELIEF IN THE rROCLAMATION THE TEST OF 
LOYALTY. 

We have already uttered our belief, and sus- 
tained that belief with ample proof, that Mr. 
Lincoln was badgered into the issuing the 
Proclamation for the purpose of dividing the 
North, and by such division, to finally over- 
throw the old Government. 

John W. Forney, the acknowledged mouth- 
piece of the powers that be, like the dog Cer- 
berus, that guarded the gates of the Plutonian 
regions, has, not like that sulphurous watch- 
dog, three heads, but he has two organs — the 
Philadelphia Press and the Washington Chron- 
icle. In the latter this watch-dog is pleased to 
denominate the fight for the Proclamation as — 

"The coming struggle for a great principle. 

* * * This question of enforcing the 

President's Emancipation Proclamation is rap- 



idly approaching that point at which it will be 
ih& test of popular loyalty!'''' 

Our fathers taught us that the only "test of 
loyalty" was a due observance of the constitu. 
tion, but here we have a new test. All who do 
not subscribe to it, are to be tabooed as disloy- 
al! Disloyal to what? Why, to a measure to 
break up and destroy the government. 

The Chronicle also quotes and highly com- 
mends the following from the 

ADDRESS by SENATOR WILSON. 

"The practical issues before the nation are 
the suppression of the rebellion by the hand of 
war, the extinguishment of its cause by 
the inforcement of the Emancipation Pro- 
clamation. These are the vital issues, 
and they are to meet the sternest resist- 
ance — to pass through trials that will test 
the fidelity and endurance of their supporters, 
as their fidelity and endurance were never be- 
fore tested. 1 tell you, sir, and the men who 
believe in the Emancipation Proclamation, who 
mean to make it a practical reality, the irre- 
pealable law of the nation, that they must pre- 
pare for a mighty conflict that will stir the 
country to its profoundest depths. Beside this 
transcendent question of the inforcement of the 
proclamation in the rebel states, all other ques- 
tions, growing out of the existence of slavery, 
sink into utter insignificance; for its success 
carries with it everything else— ultimate eman- 
cipation in Delaware, and Maryland, Kentucky 
and Tennessee, fugitive slave law and all. Let 
then, the anti-slavery men of united America, 
by thought, word, and deed, support the Presi- 
dent in suppressing the rebellion, and in en- 
forcing the proclamation. Let them raise no 
immaterial issues, no trifling questions to dis- 
tract or to divide their counsels, or to impede 
their advance to the achievement of the crown- 
ing victory that shall bring along with it unity 
to a now dismembered country, peace to a 
wounded and bleeding nation, justice to a 
wronged race, and a future radiant with the 
elevating and refining inspirations of equal and 
impartial freedom." 

This shows that these radicals intended to 
bring on a conflict here at the North "that will 
stir the country to its profoundest depths," 
and who can doubt the object? 

There was no need of such a conflict. If 
saving the Union was the real object, these 
marplots would have striven by all means in 
their power to have kept the North united, for 
in unity there is streagth, but knowing tnat in 
a conflict there would be weakness, they have 
inaugurated that "conflict" and made it as 
"irrepressible" as possible, that it might be 
fulfilled, which was spoken of by Douglas in 
his last speech in the Senate — that the Repub- 



164 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



licans desired disunion, whenever they could 
effect it without making themselves directly 
responsible. 

"disloyalty" of the radicals. 

The standard lately set up by the radicals 
will do to try them by. They now declare that 
it is "disloyal" to find any fault with the 
President or his policy. Let us see what they 
did prior to the promulgation of the proclama- 
tion. 

We select the following from the Janesville 
(Wis.) Gazette: 

"It may be wisdom in the present adminis- 
tration to keep its own counsel and submit to 
misrepresentations rather than avow its policy. 
We know there are good and tried men m the 
cabinet. Such a representative as Mr. Chase, 
Ohio, may hold in check the manifestation of a 
feeling that needs but little incentive to break 
into an open expression. But it is useless to at- 
tempt to conceal the fact thai fear if not distrust is 
creeping too fast into the minds of too many un- 
doubted Republicans to be pleasant in present 
conteinplation or hopeful in prospect.^' 

And again, from the same sheet: 

"Gen Ilalleck is waiting till his officers have 
hunted out all the contrabands in his army, 
and delivered them up to their owners, and 
Gen. Buell, in Kentucky, is waiting for Hal- 
leek to move down the Mississippi before he 
advances into Tennessee. Some are waiting 
to see if Parson Brownlow will not be rescued 
for toasting some of "our friends over there," 
&c. 

And once more this organ vented its spleen 
at the administration: 

"Modest. — The Legislature of Kentucky 
has passed a resolution asking President Lin- 
coln to dispense with Secretary Cameron, on 
account of his views as to the confiscation of 
slave property belonging to persons in rebel- 
lion to the Government. ^Ye should not won- 
der if the request was complied with, as the 
Kentucky Unionists seem to have control of 
the policy of the administration. A pretext 
for Cameron's removal can be as easily found 
as for the sacrifice of Fremont on account of 
his proclamation." 

The Waukesha (Wis.) Freeman said: 

"Just so long as the North (meaning the 
administration) fights the slaveholders, and 
holds four millions of human beings in bondage 
for them to build their fortifications and culti- 
vate their lands, just so long will the South be 
able to prosecute the rebellion. But let the 
slaves be confiscated or freed, and the rebellioti 
would be killed stone dead in a fortnight.'^ 

THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE OX BLUNDERS. 

The pious New York Tribune thus pitched 
into the Administration: 



"The history of this war, on the part of 
both government and people, is little more 
than a record of the discovery of mistakes and 
the ratification of blunders. Among the most 
pernicious blunders which have embarrassed 
our warlike operations has been the blunder of 
underrating the strength of the rebels. As a 
matter of course we have overrated the strength 
of the loyal States." 

And yet Greeley said this about the same 
time he was clamoring for the proclamation as 
a certain means to crush the rebellion ' 'be- 
fore Christmas." 

WENDELL PHILLIPS ON THE "LICK SPITTLE" 

administration. 

At a Republican meeting in Boston, called 
to express their disgust at the conduct of the 
"Government" in modifying Cameron, Mr. 
Phillips remarked: 

"The President, with senile, lick-spittle 
haste runs before he is bidden to revoke the 
Hunter Proclamation. If Hunter had issued 
a pro-slavery proclamation, be sure the govern- 
ment would have waited for red tape. It show- 
ed the old pro-slavery leaning of the Govern- 
ment. Mr. P. believed that President Lin- 
coln's decree in relation to the Hunter Procla- 
mation had lost a quarter of the chances of 
preserving the Union. (Phillips talk about 
preserving the Union — bosh!) What were the 
anti-slavery people to do now? They must ed- 
ucate public opinion, that was all, and force 
the Government up to the proper anti-slavery 
point. Emancipation won't save the Union 
now — confiscation must save it,. * * The 
President and the Cabinet of the United States 
were treasonable in their delay. The people 
want the Qevernment to take a position. The 
President and Secretary of War should be im- 
peached for allowing Mercier to go down to 
Richmond, with their consent, to confer with 
the rebel leaders. That Minister had no right 
for any such purpose, to hold conference with 
the rebels in arms, and where is the Govern- 
ment that would have allowed it, but this?" 

The Milwaukee Sentinel, though at a later 

date, thus exhibits its faultfinding propensity: 

"When an officer like Halbert E, Paine, as 
good as the Government has in its service, and 
whose men are attached to him, as much as it 
is possible for men to be attached to an officer, 
is put under arrest for the cause he was, (for 
disobedience of orders), haio is it possible to 
_enlist men for service?" 

The Wisconsin State Journal said: 

"Verily, the policy upon which this war is 
conducted must be changed for a policy more 
earnest, thorough and effective." 

We would say amen to that, if some one 
would guarantee us immunity from arrest as 
disloyal to the "Government." 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



165 



Wendell Phillips made a speech before 
the Republicans at Abbington, Massachusetts, 
August 1, 1862, in which occurs this lan- 
guage: 

"We shall never have peace until slavery is 
destroyed. As long as you keep the present 
Turtle at the head of the Government, you 
make a pit with one hand, and fill it with the 
other. * * *■' If any man present believes 
he has light enough to allow him, let him pray 
that Davis viay be permitted to make an at- 
tack on Washinciton City, within a iceek!" 

BEECIIER CN THE " GOVERNMENT." 

The New York Tndejjendent of August 9, 
1862, contained a most savage diatribe against 
the "Government."' We select the following: 

"There has not been a line in any Govern- 
ment paper [under Lincoln] that might not 
have been issued by the Czar, by Louis Napole- 
on, or by Jeff Davis. 

"Our State papers, during this eventful 
struggle, are void of genuine enthusiasm for 
the great doctrines on which this Government 
was founded. Faith in human rights is dead 
in W^ashingten!" 

TESTIMONY OF SENATOR BROWNING. 

Senator Browning, whom Governor Yates, 
of Illinois, appointed to fill the unexpired term 
of the lamented Douglas, and wh® ought to 
be good Republican authority, made a speech 
at Quincy, Illinois, soon after his return from 
Congress, in which he daguerreotyped sundry 
Republican journals; from which we select the 
following: 

"Among the.se journals is the Chicago Tri- 
hune and the Quincy Whig. He read an ar- 
ticle from the Tribune, and denounced it as the 
most infamous treason that had appeared in 
any paper in the United States since the war 
began. Of the editors of the Tribune he had 
the most contemptuous opinion. He did not 
believe them to be loyal, and if they should 
take an oath to support the Government, he 
would not believe their oath." 

The Milwaukee Wisconsin thus stabbed one 
branch of the "Government:" 

"la the War Department he (Seward) has 
mixed in on almost every occasion. It is iceli^ 
known that he favored the inaction of the Grand 
Army — when events have proved it would have 
been comparatively easy to take Richmond. 
Seward's military policy has been a blotch and 
a blunder. It has consolidated the rebel Gov- 
ernment into its present formidable power." 

The Chicago Tribune pitched into the Presi- 
dent after this style for his expressions to 
Greeley: 



" '■The Union as it Was.^— In his letter to 
Horace Greeley, the President says; 

'The sonaer the national authority is restored, the soon- 
er the Union will be the Union as it was.' 

"There is much ambiguity in this express- 
ion. The 'Union as it was' is a cant phrase, 
invented by the famous Vallandigham, and 
fathered by his dirty tool, Dick Richardson. 
* -A- * But such a Union loyal men don't 
want to see restored. They prefer a Union as 
it ought to be. What patriotic citizen desires 
the 'Union as it was' under Buchanan's admin- 
istration. [Bosh!] If that is the Union to 
which Mr. Lincoln refers, he should dismiss 
his present Cabinet and send for Cobb, Floyd, 
Thompson. Toucey," &c. 

For further information on this head, we re- 
fer the reader to a previous chapter on the 
radical conspiracy against ihe President: 

THE NEW YORK INDEPENDENT ON THE ADMIN- 
ISTRATION. 

We copy as follows from the New York In- 

dcpendent: 

"There is no need of rousing the patriotism 
of the people. It is an inexhaustible quality. 
It underlies their very life. The Government 
itself is bouyed by it, and rides upon it like a 
ship upon the fathomless ocean. 

"No! It is the Government that needs 
rousing. We do not need meetings en the 
Hudson, but inoiion on the Potomac. * * 
There is no use concealing it — the people are 
beginning to distrust their rulers. *" ^>" The 
President seems to be a man without any sense 
of the value of time. * * Armies are per- 
ishing. Months are wasting. We are in the 
second year of the rebellion. We have been 
just on the eve of doing something for sixteen 
months. 

"The people cannot but see that the success 
of our arms has been in the ratio cf their dis- 
tance from the Seat of Government! In all the 
Great West, where the Government could not 
meddle — on the sea board, in North Carolina. 
at Beaufoi't, S. C, at New Orleans, we have 
had success. But in Virginia, within reach of 
tlie influence of Washington we have had all our 
delays and all our misfortunes. 

"We looked from stand to stand in the great 
meeting on Tuesday, with a sadness we could 
not disguise. The necessity for such a meet- 
ing was a mortification. What President ivas 
ever so royally backed ; [stick a pin here.] — 
What resources; what enthusiasm, what unity 
of feeling ; [just as we meutioned in previous 
pages.] What eagerness of men to be enroll- 
ed, what confidence in the Administration ! — 
And one year has so nearly wasted all this 
that the Government is resorting to unusual 
measures to secure enlistments. Is patriotism 
dead? Is the love of national unity grounded ? 
AVhy are such meetings needed to draw up re- 
cruits? We are obliged to say, Mr. Lincoln, 
the fault is not with the people.^^ 

Cannot Mr. Beecher see some reason for 



166 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



this apathy among the people, in the system 
of arbitrary arrests ■without accuser, judge or 
jury — and the negro policy? 

"The war line rose up in its majesty to pun- 
ish rebellion. It put a magnificent army into 
the President's hands. For one year that ar- 
my was besieged in the capital! * * and in 
the second year of the war! And how long 
will „it be before every nation in Europe will 
have" a rioht to say the South has shown itself 
able to maintain its independence? * * -x- 
But one thing is sure, unless there is more 
purpose and vigor at Washington^ all the pub- 
lic meetings in the land will not save this 
country from shame and disaster." 

THE HEAVY LOAD OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 

The New York Times, before the election in 
1862, declared that all who did not sustain 
every act of the administration^ were traitors. 
After the election it thus made the administra- 
tion the scape goat for the sins of its party de- 
feat: 

"The l^eaviest load which the friends of the 
Government (administration) have been com- 
pelled to carry through this canvass, has been 
the inactivity a?td inefficiency of the adminis- 
tration. We speak from a knowledge of pub- 
lic sentiment in every section of the state, when 
we say that the failure of the Government to 
prosecute the war with a vigor, energy and 
success which the vast resources at its com- 
mand warranted the country in expecting at 
its hands, has weighed like an incubus up- 
on the public heart. With every disposition to 
sustain" the Government, with the conviction 
that the only hope of the country lies in giving 
it a cordial and effective support, its friends 
. , have been unable to give a satisfactory answer 
X to the questions that have came up from every 
\ side. >Vhy has the war made so little pro- 
gress? Why have our splendid armies achiev- 
ed such slight successes? Why have they lain 
idle so long? And why have the victories they 
have won been so wholly barren of decissive 
results? The war has dragged on for a year 
and a half. The country has given the Gov- 
ernment over a million of men, and all the 
money they could possibly use, yet we have 
made scarcely any progress towards crushing 
the rehellion The rebel armies still menace 
the capital. The privateers defy our navy and 
spread increasing terror among our peaceful 
traders on the seas: What is the use of trying 
to sustain an administration which lags so far 
behind the country, and seems so indifferent 
and incompetent to the dreadful task committed 
to its hands?" 

The Chicago Tribune threw this fling at the 
Administration: 

'■'■ [nfl.uence of Traitors at Washington. — The 
recent unrebuked presence in Washington of 
Mrs. Lay, whose husband was formerly on 



Gen. Scott's staff, but who is now an Inspector 
in the rebel army, and Mrs. Campbell, wife of 
the Assistant Secretary of War of the rebel 
government, and their unimpeded return to 
Richmond, have provoked much comment. 
Many people cannot see why female spies are 
thus permitted to visit the Capital of the coun- 
try, and after obtaining whatever information 
is accessible — usually an ample store — be al- 
lowed to return at pleasure through our lines 
to Richmond, laden with their valuable freight- 
age." 

Would the Tribune thus cast reproach on 
the Administration, after the issuing of that 
wonderful Proclamation? Doubtful. 

This same sheet of April 10, '63, takes the 
New York Post to task for its "attacks on the 
President" for retaining McClellan so long, 
notwithstanding the Tribune admits in the 
same article to have done the same thing. 
(Probably before the proclamation.) 

The Milwaukee Sentinel of April 18, 1863, 
pitches into the President's "scatteration" 
policy, in sending Banks off to the Rio Grande, 
&c. It says: 

"The scattering of large armies at various 
points along a lengthy line of attack, and too 
far apart for mutual support, or speedy con- 
centration, seems opposed, not only to the max- 
ims of great military attributes, but to the dic- 
tates of common sense. * * * We have 
more and better men than the rebels. With a 
military policy as correct as theirs, we could 
not fail to whip them even with our present 
armies." 

But the Scntiiiel, since that time, has ob- 
tained anew editor, and probably will "sin no^ 
more." 

The Buffalo Express, a strong Administra- 
tion paper, in a l®ng doleful article on the fail- 
ure of the Potomac Army to accomplish any- 
thing, says: 

"Either we must have generals who can 
blossom in the shade, for Generals do not 
thrive under the drip of the Capitol At thirty- 
six hours distance from Washington, armies 
and Generals succeed. At twenty-four hours 
they just held their own; but within six hours 
they are as dead as a field of wheat under the 
shadow of a upas tree." 

The Pittsburg Chronicle, a most radical 
sheet, in speaking of Rosccrans' movements, 
says: 

"That while the rebels are at their old game 
of concentration, Halleck is at his of 'scatter- 
ation.' Can any sensible man tell why Grant's 
main army is idle at this moment, or why our 
best troops are wasted in idle and Quixotic ex- 
peditions to those distant and God forsaken 
countries, Texas and Arkansas? Do the vitals 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



167 



of the rebellion live away out among the Ca- 
manches or Creek Indians, or in Georgia, Ala- 
bama, Mississippi and Virginia? We are again 
hacking away at the fingers and toes of the re- 
bellion, while Rosecrans' spring at its very 
heart is turned aside by want of numbers and 
concentration." 

Perhaps the Chronicle is one of those weak 
minded concerns that believe it is the object of 
those in power to put down the rebellion, and 
save the Union. It may be guilty of such 
weakness. 

The anti-slavery Standard offers the follow- 
ing mutterings: 

"By the time the Government gets ready to 
do anything, the time for it has passed. This 
has been the case too often in the past. We 
need vigor, more vigor, and still more vigor, 
and Mr. Stanton needs to learn that bullying 
men as he used to juries, is not vigor." 

The Cincinnati Gazette^ an extremely loyal 
paper, as will be seen by a quotation from it in 
reference to the Mexican war (in a previous 
chapter) thus utters its complaints: 

'•The great army of the West lies useless on 
the Mississippi, while the great shock of 
armies in the West will soon take place in 
Tennessee. This is the whole situation, and 
it would be difficult to describe a more total 
helplessness of a great power for want of an 
intelligent director. It is hard to account for 
the apathy of a military Director at Washing- 
ton, under this state of affairs. * * * 

"The rebels have adopted the policy of con- 
centration. Our military Director persists in 
scattering. * * * In its (the war) present 
arrangement there is nothing to inspire hope, 
but everything to create disuflection and des- 
pondency." 

The New York Post says: 

"The Government has made mistakes ; it 
has at times pursued an illogical, weak and 
timid policy ;. it has done some things calculat- 
ed to alienate popular sympathy," &c. 

For saying no more than this, any Democrat- 
ic paper would have been called "copper- 
head." 

TUE TWO "loyal" SIAMESE TWINS. 

Booth, the great Wisconsin martyr, and 
leader of the Wisconsin Republican mobs, 
takes its yoke fellow, the Milwaukee Sentinel, 
to task as follows. It is like^Satan rebuking 
sin. Says the Milwaukee Daily Life (Booth's 
paper) : 

"The Sentinel man denounces the concilia- 
tory war policy of the Administration for the 
first twelve months of the war" as "miserable 
and disgraceful." It says: 



"Ttie volunteer soldiers of our army were degraded — 
their morals and enthusiasm impaired, and their Northern 
manhood insulted by this miserable half-war and half- 
peace policy, and it advises any who have forgotten how 
much violence toward Union men, and how much master- 
ly inactivity were the results of this policy— to take the 
files of any good newspaper, and wade through the shame- 
ful record of subservience, tenderness and patriotism on 
our side, and of insolence, ingratitude and treachery ex- 
hibited by the slave owners of the Border States." 

"The Sentinel., during these same 'twelve 
months,' defended this very 'miserable half- 
war and half-peace policy,' and denounced 
those who criticised it, declaring that our 
paper ought to be suppressed, for finding fault 
with this policy. 13ut now it turns round, 
with a fucility of sumersaulting, on a brazen 
faced impudence worthy of the New York 
Jlerald, and denounces the very policy it then 
defended, in far stronger language than we 
used, when it accused us of treason to the Gov- 
ernment." 

[From tha New York Tribune, of Nov. 22, 1863.] 

"Great is Ilalleck. Yes, great is Halleck! 
Had he never been called to the post that he 
fills — that of Geueral-in-Chief — his Order No. 
Three, and his everlastingly memorable siege 
of Corinth would have secured for him that 
mention in history that is not unfrequently de- 
nied to daring and worth. In this common- 
sense world, and in the country of ours where 
common-sense is almost sure to ivin its tvay., 
blank stupidity is always to be mentioned: — 
Halleck will fill a volume. 

"Halleck is General-in-Chief. To him the 
planning of campaigns is referred — to him as a 
West Pointer, and presumptively a man of 
science. He, under the President, who does 
not pretend to know the hidden mysteries that 
lie within inner and outer circles, is the ulti- 
mate authority. -Ilis fat is conclusive. "I 
am the army," he may say with just as much 
truth as Louis XIV. used to say, ''I am the 
State!" And now behold what he has order- 
ed: An expedition to Brownsville of — we 
know not of bow many men — an expedition 
that might be in order when all the othe-r ene- 
mies of the Republic are put down; but which 
is now sadly out of keeping with the exigency of 
the national situation. He is for nipping the 
rebellion on its edges, while its heart beats 
loud and strong. He is the champion of exte- 
rior lines. Besides this the expedition of 
Washburn, Texasward, by way of Oi)clousa — 
what is that but a stroke of genius of which 
Order No. 3 was but the premonition — genius 
that triumphs over swamps, bayous and timber 
though it may not conquer the enemy? And 
while these expeditions are floundering, the 
one in the surf and the other in 'he wvi, we 
see what we want clscwln-re. 

''Bornside, beleagured by a superior force, 
cries for help that cannot reach him, and Grunt 
shut up at Chattanooga at the head of an arviy 
that is battered and bruised by a late encoun- 
ter, cannot move a peg. Meade cannot go for- 
ward and cross the Ropidan, because bis forc3 
weakened by the sending off detachmcuts to 
the Cumberland, has not the strength to over- 
come the obstacles opposed! Defeat stares the 



168 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



armies in the face, because our forces are di- 
vided and sent off on Tomfoors errands — to do 
something that will have no influence on the 
final and much desired result. Had Grant half 
of the men that are butting their brains out 
against cypress trees in thatOpelousas country, 
be could push on; and his first move would call 
back to his front the columns that now, under 
Longstreet, threaten Knoxville and the con- 
tinuity of our line. Hooker and his corps 
■would have been saved to Meade and the fortir 
fications that his army could not have safely 
assaulted, could not have been turned. Mean- 
while a dozen gunboats on the Mississippi could 
have kept every rebel on the west side of that 
stream Five hundred men afloat could have 
done the work of five and thirty thousand in 
the field. Is not the wisdom, the foresight and 
necessity of Order No. 3 vindicated in what 
•we relate? 

"The country inquires why is it that Halleck 
icith that cahhage head of his, retains his 
■ place — why is he not permitted to retire to his 
ancestral krout gardens on the Mohawk, and 
there, among his kindred, find, in the killing 
of cut-worms and the care of his cabbage crop, 
the employment for which his genius is fitted 
And if Burnside is gobbled up, and Grant is 
forcedio retreat, that inquiry ivill grow into 
a demand that ivill he sure to maJce itself heard. 
We, who do not care for all the epauletted dig- 
nity that the Presicent can confer on medioc- 
rity, press the demand now. Cabbages for 
Halleck, and war for those who have genius to 
comprehend it!" 

In a subsequent number of the same paper, 
we find the following: 

"We know no reason, outside of the ineffi- 
ciency and incompetency of General Halleck, 
why this array of evils should now confront 
» the country and send a chill down to the soles 
of every loyal man's boots. And we knovv of 
no remedy save that heroic one of sending 
Halleck, who is responsible for the army's 
movements, back to the captaincy for which he 
is best fitted, or to the Mohawk and the cab- 
bages among which he was raised. The disas- 
ter now threatening has been foreseen for more 
than a month, It has been the constant theme 
of the rebel papers, and their loudest boasts 
There is not a man in the land who did not 
know of the movement intended. There is 
not, save one at Washington, a General-in- 
Chief, who would not have made a counter 
movement to check it. If Knoxville falls, and 
Burnside is destroyed, let the hero of Corinth 
— the author of Order No. 3 — look out. Not 
even Presidential favor can save him! 

[From the New York World, Nov. 11, 1S6.3.] 
" 'The greatest folly of my life was the is- 
suing of the Emancipation proclamation.' 
Such weie the woi'ds of President Lincoln to 
Wendell Phillips last January, according to 
the testimony of the latter in a speech he made 
last week at the Music Hall in New Haven. 
Before the issuing of that document. President 
Lincoln gave it as his opinion that it would be 



of no more effect than the 'Pope's bull against 
the comet;' and after he had given it to the 
world he regards it as 'the greatest folly of his 
life,' and did not scruple to so inform one of 
the most influential leaders of the fanatical 
faction who had forced him into the objection- 
able measure. President Lincoln has made 
many notable remarks since he has been in of- 
fice, but none that is likely to attract so much 
attention as the above." 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE PROCLAMATION. ..THE RADICAL WAR POLICY. 

Mr. Lincoln's Letter to the Utica- Springfield Meetings 
Editor's Remarks on the N?gro Policy..." New York 
Tribune" Pledges the President, Ac ...John P. Hale's 
Bill to Abolish the Constitution. ..The Proclamation in 
England. .."New Y'ork Tribune" on "Servile Insurrec- 
tions". ..Opinions of English Abolitionists. ..Mi. Wilber- 
force on the Folly of the Proclamation. ..Wendell Phil- 
lips on the Rampage. ..The Proclamation Confessed a 
Failure. ..Caleb B. Smith Pledges the Administration 
against the Proclamation. ..Mr. Madison on Emancipa- 
tion. ..Lord Dunmore's Proclamation. ..Bancroft, the Uia- 
toriaii on the Same...Thurlow Weed's Prediction. ..Mr. 
Lincoln on Federal Authority. ..The Chicago Platform... 
General Remarks... Post Master General Blair as a Wit- 
ness. ..His RockviUe Speech. 

THE rROCLAMATION AND THE PRESIDENT'S 
WAR POLICY. 

The following is President Lincoln's letter 
to the Union Mass Meeting at Springfield, Ill- 
inois, and Utica, New York: 

"Executive Mansion, \ 
"August 20th, ls(32. ]■ 
'^ To Hon. James C. Conklin: 

"My DEAR Sir: — Your letter inviting me 
to attend a mass meeting of Union men, to be 
held at the Capitol of Illinois on the third day 
of September, has been received. It would be 
very agreeable to me thus to meet my old 
friends, at my own home, but I cannot just now 
be absent from this city so long as a visit there 
would require. 

"The meeting is to be of those who maintain 
unconditional devotion to the Union, and I am 
sure that vaj old political friends will thank 
me for tendering, as I do, the Nation's grati- 
tude to those other noble men, whom no parti- 
san hopes make false to the Nation's life. 

"There are those who are dissatisfied with 
me. To such I would say, you desire peace, 
and you blame me that we do not have it: but 
how can we attain it? There are but three con- 
ceivable ways: 

"First — To suppress the rebellion by force of 
arms. This I am trying to do. Are you for 
it? If you are, so far we are agreed. 

"If you are not for it, a second way is to 
give up the Unioft I am against this. If you 
are not for force nor yet for dissolution, there 
remains only some imaginable compromise. I 
do not believe that any compromise under the 
maintenance of the Union is now possible. All 
th^it I learn, tends directly to the opposite be- 
lief — that the strength of the rebellion is in 
its military — its army; and that the armydom- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



169 



inates all the country and all the people within 
its range. Any offers, if made by any man or 
men within that range, in opposition to that. 
ar simply nothing, for the present, because 
such man or men have no power whatever to 
enforce their side of a compromise, if one be 
made with them. 

"To illustrate: Suppose refugees from the 
South and peace men from the North should 
meet in convention and frame a proclamation 
or compromise embracing a restoration of the 
Union, in what way can that compromise be 
used to keep Gen. Lee's army out of Pennsyl- 
vania? Gen. Meade's army can keep Gen. 
Lee's army out of Pennsylvania, and I think 
ultimately drive it out of existence. But no 
paper compromise, to which the COTitrollers of 
Lee's army are not agreed, can at all effect 
that army. In an effort at such a compromise 
we would waste time that the enemy would im- 
prove to our disadvantage, and that would be 
all. A compromise to be effective must be 
made either with, those who control the rebel 
army, or with the people liberated from the do- 
minion of that army by the success of our 
army. 

"Now, allow me to assure you that no word 
or intimation from the rebel army, or from any 
of the men controlling it, in relation to any 
peace compromise, has ever come to my knowl- 
edge or belief. All charges or intimations to 
the contrary are deceptive and groundless, and 
I promise you that if any such proposition shall 
hereafter come, it shall not be rejected and 
kept secret from you. 

[This is certainly apochryphal. See the 
AVood-Lincoln correspondence ] 

"I freely acknowledge myself to be the ser- 
vant of the people according to the bond of the 
service, the United States Constitution, and 
as such I am responsible to them. But, to be 
plain, you are dissatisfied with me about the 
negro. Quite likely. There is a difference 
between you and myself upon the subject. I 
certainly wish all men could be free, while 
you, I suppose, do not. Yet I have neither 
adopted or proposed any measure which is not 
consistent with even your view, provided you 
are for the Union. 

"I suggested a compensated emancipation, 
to which you replied that you wished not to be 
taxed to buy negroes, but I had not asked you 
to be taxed to buy negroes except in such a 
way as to save you from greater taxation, in 
order to save the Union exclusively by other 
means. You dislike the emancipation and per- 
haps would have it retracted. You say it is 
unconstitutional. I think differently. I think 
the Constitution vests its Conu|^nder-in-Chief 
with the law of war in time of^^r. The most 
that can be said, if so much, is that slaves are 
property. Has there ever been any question, 
that by the laws of war, property, both of ene- 
mies and friends, may be taken when needed? 
and is it not needed whenever the taking of it 
helps us or hurts the enemy? Armies, the 
world over, destroy the enemy's property when 
12 



they cannot use it, end even destroy their own 
to keep it from the enemy. Civilized belliger- 
ants do all in their power to help themselves or 
hurt the enemy, except in a few things regard- 
ed as barbarous and cruel. Among the excep- 
tions are the massacre of vanquished foes and 
non-combatants, male and female. But the 
proclamation as a law is valid or not valid. If 
it is not valid, it wants no retraction. If it is 
valid it cannot be retracted any more than the 
dead can be brought to life. 

"Some of you profess to think that retraction 
would operate favorably to the Union. "Why 
better after the retraction than before the is- 
sue? There was more than a year and a half 
of trial to suppress the rebellion before the 
proclamation was issued, the last one hundred 
days of which passed under an explicit notice 
that it was coming unless averted by those in 
revolt returning to their allegiance. 

"The war has certainly progressed as favor- 
ably to us since the issue of the proclamation 
as before. I know, as fully as one can know 
the opinions of others, that some of the com- 
manders of our armies. in the field, who have 
given us our most important victories, believe 
the emancipation policy and the aid of colored 
troops constitute the heaviest blows yet dealt 
to the rebellion, and that at least one of those 
successes could not have been achieved where 
it Wj^s, but for the aid of black soldiers. 

[We'd like to see the proof of this.] 

"Among the commanders holding these views 
are some who have never had any aflinity with 
what is called abolitionism, or the Republican 
party politics, but who hold them purely as 
military opinions. I submit their opinions, as 
being entitled to some weight against the ob- 
jections often urged that emancipation and 
arming blacks are unwise as military meas 
ures, and were not adopted as such in good 
faith. 

"You say that you will not fight to free ne- 
groes; some of them seem willing enough to 
tight for you. but no matter. Fight you then 
exclusively to save the Union. I issued the 
proclamation and propose to aid you in saving 
the Union. Whenever you have conquered all 
resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to 
continue fighting, it will be an apt time then 
for you to declare [that you shall not fight to 
free negroes. I thought that in your struggle 
for the Union, to whatever extent the negroes 
should cease helping the enemy in his resist- 
ance to you. You think differently. 

"I thought that whatever negroes can be eot 
to do as soldiers, leaves so much less for white 
soldiers to do in saving the Union. Does it 
appear otherwise to you ? But negroes, like 
other people, act upon motive. Why should 
they do anything for us if we will do nothing 
for them? If they stake their lives for us they 
must be prompted by the strongest motive, 
even the promise of freedom, and the jjromise 
being made must be kept. 

"The signs look better. The Father of Wa- 
ters goes un\exed to the sea, thanks to the 
Great Northwest for it. Nor yet wholly to 



T 



170 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



them. Three hundi-ed miles up they met New 
England, the Empire and Keystone states and 
New Jersey, hewing their way right and left. 
The sunny South too, in more colors than one, 
lent a hand. On the spot, their part of the his- 
tory was jotted down in black and white. — 
The job was a great one, and let none be bar- 
red who bore an honorable part in it. And 
while those who have cleared the great river, 
may well be proud, yet even that is not all. — 
It is hard to say that anything has been more 
bravely and better done than at Antietam, 
Murfreesboro, Gettysburg and on many fields 
of less note. 

"Nor .must Uncle Sam's webbed feet be for- 
gotten. At all the water's margins they have 
been present. Not only on the deep sea, the 
broad b;iy, and the rapid river, but also up the 
narrow mud bayou, and wherever the ground 
was a little dnnp they had been and made their 
tracks. 

"Thanks to all; for the great Republic; for 
the principles by which it lives and keeps alive; 
for man's vast fortune — thanks to all! Peace 
does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it 
will come soon, and come to stay, and so come 
ai to be xcorth the keeping in all future time. 
It will then have been proved that among free- 
men there can be no successful appeal from the 
ballot to the bullet, and that they who take such 
appeal are to lose their case and pay the cost. 
And then there will be some black men who 
can remember that with silent tongue, and 
with clenched teeth, and with steady eye, and 
■well-poised oayonet, they have helped mankind 
to this great consummation; lohile I fear that 
there will be some ichite men, unable to forget 
that with ni'iligti'int heart, and deceitful speech 
they have striven to hinder it. 

"Still let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy 
and final triumph. Let us be quite sober, and 
let us diligently apply our means, never doubt- 
ing that a just God, in His own good time will 
give us the rightful result. 

Yuurs very truly, 

[glgneil.] "A. LINCOLN." 

TUE NEGRO SOLDIEE POLICY. 

We have given above the whole of Mr. Lin- 
coln's epistle to the Utica-Springfield meet- 
ings — not that it was necessary for our pur- 
pose, but that his friends may not say we have 
done him injustice by partial extracts. He is 
here on record as wedded to the policy which 
the radicals forced him into. 

The objei't if this policy lies deeper than a 
desire to render aid to white soldiers. This 
might have been done by employing the ne- 
groes as servants and helpers, in camps and 
ditches In fact, this is the only way that 
negroes might be servicable, to which no one 
has objected. But Sambo must be used as a 
political machine, and hence he must wear the 
blue uniform, and become subservient to the 



military power — not that he has or can do any 
military service, commensurate with the trouble 
and expense of his equipment and military 
training. No, the negro as a soldier has' 
made no record in this war, notwithstanding 
we are told the nation has expended millions 
for arming, equipping, feeding and clothing 
some 200,000 negro troops, be the same more 
or less, and we do not remember to have heard 
of Sambo, amid the din of battle, save at Mil- 
liken's Bend, where a black regiment was 
forced to the front by a wall of bayonets, in 
white hands, behind them. True, we have 
heard in the radical papers of wonderful prod- 
igies performed by the sable sons of Mars, and 
some officials have even gone so far as to extol 
their merits above that of the white soldiers, 
but in all this, they have failed to furnish us 
with the history of facts and -circumstances. 

But, do you ask how the negro as a soldier, 
is to be used to favor political objects? Let us 
see. 

The Proclamation did not assume to liberate 
slaves everywhere. Certain districts were ex- 
cluded. Slavery was still unmolested in the 
loyal Border States. The radicals insisted on 
some coup de main to abolish slavery in the 
border States. How could this be done? Why 
by the black soldier system. How by that? 
Let us see. The momeivt the bl.ick soldier 
system had been established, thousands of en- 
listing agents took up their positions in the 
border States, where they went to enlisting the 
slaves of loyal masters. They created alarm 
and brought out protests from the Governors of 
Maryland and Kentucky, but all to no pur- 
pose. The enlistments went on, and the gen- 
eral promise was thrown out, as a tub to the 
whale, that the slaves thus taken should be paid 
for. But this did not satisfy the loyal slave- 
holder. He saw in the movement an undis- 
guised effort and determination to abolish 'i 
slavery in all the localities excepted by the "^ 
Proclamation, by indirection— a. kind of whip- 
the devil-round-the-stump game. \ 

The radicals saw that if they could, under 
the protecting ajgis of the "military power" 
seize all the^ile-bodied slaves in the border 
States as solcRrs, the people from necessity 
would give up the balance, and thus the negro 
soldier business would have answered its end. 
But as for negroes fighting or being of actual 
use in milit-ary operations, the evidence is en- 
tirely wanting. If this theory does not solve 



SCRAPS FROM MV SCRAP-BOOK 



171 



the negro soldier scheme, then it must remain 
unsolved till the end of time, for from past 
history, we have no data to solve it on the black 
fighting hypothesis. 

The following from the New York Tribune, of 
December, 1863, is unequivocal, and pledges 
the President to abolish slavery in all places, 
without a why or wherefore: 

"Slavery, the wicked, wanton fomenter of 
this horrible strife, must die, or the peace will 
be but a hollow, delusive truce, to be soon fol- 
lowed by another desolating war. * * * 
Such is our President's programme, and we 
indorse every word of it." 

A BILL TO ABOLISH THE CONSTITUTION. 

As carrying out this view, Senator John P. 
Hale introduced the following in the Senate, 
December 14, '63: 

'■'Be it enacted, ^-c. That hereafter all per- 
eons within the United States of America are 
equal before the law; and all claims to person- 
al service, except those founded on contract 
f and the claim of a parent to the service of a 
^ minor child, and service rendered in pursuance 
of sentence for the punishment of crime; be 
and the same are hereby forever abolished, 
anything in the constitution or laws of any 
State to the contrary notwithstanding." 

THE proclamation IN ENGLAND. 

One of the main arguments in favor of the 
Proclamation, by the radicals, was. that it 
would bring the English people to our aid; but 
the following, from the London Herald, does 
not wear so favorable an aspect. That paper 
says: 

'"Another symptom of increasing ferocity — 
a new source of frightful crime, on the one 
side, and provocation to horrible vengeance on 
the other, [just what we have seen as the father 
of all the dithculties in reference to exchange 
of prisoners, whereby thousands of our brave 
men have been forced to starve and rot in 
Southern prisons, all on account of the negro 
punctilio red-tape-ism of our Government,] is 
disclosed in the demand made in New York 
for the Abolitionist Proclamation. So far as its 
nominal purport goes, this would be as futile 
as Mr. Lincoln's other edicts. Before he can 
emancipate the Southern negroes, he must 
conquer the South [just what he himself said 
to the Chicago divines]. But the demand is 
not made with a view to tha^|^al liberation of 
the slaves. It is meant to^^inish the rebel 
army, by calling away many officers and men 
to the delense of their homes. [This failed 
entirely.] The object is not negro emancipa- 
tion, but servile insurrection [this was argued 
by the New York T ibune'] — not the manumis- 
sion of slaves, but the subornation of atroci- 
ties, such as those at Cawnpore and Meireut 



against women and children of Southern fam- 
ilies. 

"For the negro the Northerners care noth- 
ing, except as a possible weapon in their 
hands, by which the more safely and effectually 
to wreak a cruel and cowardly vengeance on 
the South. Inferior in every respect to the 
Sepoys, the negro race would, if once excited 
to rebellion, outdue them in acts of carnage, 
as they would fall below them in military 
courage. They maybe useful as assassins and 
incendiaries; as soldiers against the dominant 
race, they would be utterly worthless. Fortu- 
nately, there is no probability that the North 
will be able to kindle any general or extensive 
negro insurrection On the lines of the Mis- 
sissippi there might be occasional outbreaks 
and numerous desertion?; a good many planta- 
tions might be fired, and a number of fugitives 
might be added to the Federal army. But neither 
the issues of the struggle, nor the fate of the 
servile race would be thereby altered. The war 
would only be made more ferocious, and the 
condition of the slaves more miserable. * * 
These new Abolitionists do not conceal their 
motives; they have not the decency to pretend 
conviction; they seek, avowedly, nothing but 
an instrument of vengeance on their enemy, 
and an instrument so dastardly, involving the 
commission of outrages so horrible, that even a 
government which employs a Mitchell and a 
Butler must shrink from such a load of in- 
famy." 

opinions of the abolitionists of ENGLAND. 

The London correspondent of the New York 
Ti?nes (Radical) wrote as follows to that pa- 
per, in 1862: 

"We have still another object of British 
sympathy— the everlasting negro. We have 
the most doleful pictures of his unhappy situa- 
tion, deprived of his Southern home and its 
comforts, and turned out to freeze and starve. 
Rejected from some of the Free States, and 
scorned in all, what is the poor negro to do? 
It is a f'lct that Hie h'ading Abolitionists in 
England are reproaching the Nat onal Gov- 
ernment for bringing upon the negroes the 
calamity of sudden and unprovided freedom. 
It is costing millions — tasking the resources of 
a great nation — to feed the idle operatives in 
Lancashire How then, they say, can you pro- 
vide for four millions of slaves, who become 
free by the Proclamation of President Lincoln 
on the 1st of January? The great m'^ss of the 
abolitionists in England icould ra'her trust the 
negroes to their masters, than have them run 
the chances — or rather, meet, what they con- 
sider, the certain miseries of a forced andim- 
mediate emancipation. The nholition policy 
of the Government has ntterly failed, so far as 
I have been able to learn, of finding any sym- 
pathg on this side of the Atlantic.'' 

MR. WILBERFORCE ON THE PROCLAMATION. 

Mr. WiLBERFORCE, SOU of the late and fam 



172 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



ous Emancipationist, lately wrote a letter to 
tke London Times ^ in which he says: 

"Allow me then to say, that if my father's 
life had been prolonged, I am certain on the 
one hand that his abhorance of slavery, and 
zeal for emancipation would not have lessened, 
and equally certain on the other hand, that he 
would have considered it a grievous crime to 
Btir up insui-rection and civil war; doubly so 
if it were done, not from mistaken benevol- 
ence, but from selfish political purposes. This,- 
as Mr. Bexton truly says, is the only meaning 
of Mr. Lincoln's proclamation, if it has any 
meaning at all." 

WENDELL PHILLIPS ON THE RAMPAGE. 

Wendell Phillips made a speech at the 
Cooper Institute, December 22, 1863. We se- 
lect the cream of said speech: 

* * * " What Grant has not done he will 
do. Not now. Every ounce of food his men 
eat is brought to them fifteen miles over the 
hills, and that arm of the service needs rest as 
well as the others. He may not be heard from 
for sixty or ninety days. But be assured of 
this — he won't sit down and dig. [Long con- 
tinued applause.] When he does move, it will 
be to see the South retreat to the real Gulf 
States — Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi. They 
have no means of bringing food to this army, 
and the army must go to the food. But when 
they have reached it, when five or six millions 
of men make up their minds that the forlorn 
spot is reached, then be sure the war is not yet 
ended. The South is a brave people. Four 
years ago I said to you under this roof, "The 
South is no coward," and you laughed at me. 
You know now, that however deluded, the 
South does believe a lie, and is willing to fight 
for it. The last forlorn refuge for such a peo- 
ple is a bloody fight. The war does not touch 
its end, and yet its end is certain, and we may 
now read it in the light of our power and our 
own perseverance The Union is to be recon- 
structed with a cement that laughs all interfer- 
ence to scorn. Daniel Webster said the ce- 
ment of the Union was the fugitive Slave bill. 
Sin never cemented anything. The cement of 
this Union is to be the mutual respect of the 
sections, bred of that blood which has mingled 
on bravely contested fields. The South thought 
of the Yankees as one who know only how to 
cheat — she met him at Chattanooga and chang- 
ed her mind The North thought of the South 
as only gasconade — she has struggled with her 
for four years, and learned to respect her sincer- 
ity if not tier intelligence. Out of that mutual 
respect is to grow a Unian as indestructible and 
as indivisable as the granite that holds up the 
continent. The question is here at the North, 
how far we will go. All civil wars are ended by 
compromise. There never was a civil war in 
history in which one party gained a clear vic- 
tory. The only question is, what shall we 
compromise onl Once launched on the stormy, 
turbid waters of politics, you cannot tell. — 



To-day the helm is in our hands, and you and 
I, if faithful, can say this to the nation, and 
the future: You may compromise when and 
Avhere you please, with one exception, and 
tliat is, that the tap root of slavery shall be 
cut [Applause.] Let thirty Senators and 
Uepresentatives enter Conaress under the 
proclamation, and what will be their first at- 
tempt? It will be, gentlemen, fund our debt. 
Your Representatives will want a tariff to pay 
Mr. Chases interest. The reply of the South 
will be, ■•Granted, provided that you tack on to 
it, by way of rider, a taritl'that will pay our in- 
terest too; only upon that condition shall you 
have a policy that is not tantamount to repudia- 
tion." Do you say that is not possible? Let me 
see. The builders of private ships in England 
have some §100,000,000 of this scrip. Suppose 
they come to the doors of your reconstructed 
Congress and say, "This paper is not worth 
five cents on the dollar, but we will give you 
§20,000,000 of it if you will make the other 
§80,000,000 worth par." Did you ever know 
a Congress that could not be bought for §20,- 
000,000? Do you ever hope to see one ? The 
first item of compromise, then, will be three 
or four thousand million dollars debt. I do 
not object to that particularly myself. It is 
the atonement which God demands of this na- 
tion for twenty years of sin. No sin is wash- 
ed out in words. You cannot cheat the devil 
of his due. Our fathers sinned against that 
victim race; and God mortgages the hand of 
every living man, and every child that is to be 
born for the next half century, to atone for 
the nation's iniquity. There will be other com- 
promises. One is the first element of Mr. 
Lincoln's project of reconstruction, which is 
this: He puts his own act and all the acts of 
Congress at the feet of the Supreme Court, 
and says the South is to swear to sup- 
port the various acts of the government so 
far as the Supreme Court holds them to 
be valid. I do not say that he could 
say anything else. I am only telling 
you what he does say. What does his procla- 
mation of January 1st, 1863, mean? Some 
numbers of the Cabinet say it means that any 
negro that can get hold of it is free. Mr. 
Chase says that every negro down to the Gulf 
that tver sees the flag is free. I asked the 
shrewdest member of the House of Represent- 
atives what he would give for the proclamation 
before the Supreme Court? "Little or noth- 
ing," he said. A prominent New England 
Senator said to me the greatest danger to the 
proolamation was from the Supreme Court. 
Leading Republicans in my State say there is 
no law in it, that it is not worth the paper on 
which it is written. Mr. Lincoln says, as he 
ought to say, noyuj^. He cannot say anything. 
The meaning ^^v=^^ proclamation nobody 
knows until the Supreme Court has decided it. 
In other words, the proclamation of January 1, 
1863, is to be filtered through the secession 
heart of a man in Baltimore, but his soul, 
if he has got one, is in Richmond. [Laugh- 
ter.] It is to pass the ordeal of a 
Bench of Judges who made the D ed 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK. 



173 



Scott decision, and announced that a negro 
lias no rights that a white man is bound to re- 
spect. It is to pass the ordeal of a set of fudges 
the majority of whom came out of the wicked- 
ness of Polk, Pierce, and Buchanan; and of 
the only two who, refused to sanction the Dred 
Scott decision, one is in his grave, and the 
other has resigned. God help the negro if he 
Tiangs on Roger B. Taney for his liberty. — 
[Sensation.] I am not here to speak of the 
portentous power of the Supreme Court. You 
know what it is, the Gibraltar of our spstem, 
the point where our democratic machine touch- 
es nearest to despotism. Taking our system of 
bowing to precedents, it is a system in which 
the opinion of the present day is checkmated 
by the prejudices of men who were appointed 
fifty years ago, and who are pledged to respect 
the prejudices of men who have been in their 
graves a hundred years. That is the meaning 
of the Supreme Court of the United States. 
That is the only hope that Mr. Lincoln's pro- 
ject holds out to you of the validity of the act 
of Congress and of his proclamations of Sep- 
tember and January last. As Commander- 
in-Chief and author of these two instruments. 
I am not finding fault with Mr. Lincoln. Sup- 
pose you are tenant in a house. Your chimney 
smokes; but your lease is out in thirty days. 
You throw up the window to make a draft. 
But the landlord remodels the chimney. Mr. 
Lincoln is a tenant at will, and goes out short- 
ly. His proclamation is throwing up the win- 
dow to make a draft. As the landlord, let the 
nation say we want him to remodel the chim- 
ney. We want a platform which the Supreme 
Court cannot touch. [Applause.] As the 
quid pro quo for this war, I want something of 
which I know the value to-day without consult- 
ing Judge Wayne, Judge Grier, Judge Taney, 
Judge Clifford, or Judge Catron, secessionists 
from the top of their heads to the soles of their 
feet. [Hisses.] If you don't think so, go and 
examine them; that's all. [Hisses and ap- 
plause.] If they have reformed and repented, 
I shall be glad to know it. I judge them by 
the record — by their decisions. The New York 
Times asks me to-day whether I would 
not trust the negro where all white men 
have been trusted for the last seventy years. If 
I had no protection but the bond of the Supreme 
Court, T should have been in jail seven years 
ago; and as for the negro, that court has an- 
nounced that he has no rights white men are 
bound to respect. What I ask of Mr. Lincoln 
in his behalf is, an amendment of the constitu- 
tion, which his advice to congress would pass 
in 60 days, that hereafter there shall be neither 
slavery nor involuntary servitude in any State 
of this Union. [Prolong^ applause.] Mr. 
Seward wants the Mississi^i chairs — the Sen- 
ate chamber filled. So do I. He is for having 
them filled as they are. I am for making them 
so hot that a slaveholder cannot sit in them." 

THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE ON SERVILE INSUR- 
RECTION. 

In this connection, a word from the New 
York Tribune^ may not be out of place, as a 



foundation for the articles just quoted from the 
London Herald. The Tribune says: 

"The rebels, not with the phantom, but 
with the reality of servile insurrection, by the 
sudden appearance in arms, in the region se- 
lected, of a body of no less than 5000 negroes, 
properly led by whites, and supported by regu- 
lar troops, communication has been opened and 
kept up for some time by trustworthy contra- 
bands with the bondsman of the chosen field of 
operations, and they know when the liberating 
hosts will appear, and are ready to raise in 
thousands, and sioell it to a wave so mighty that 
it ivill sweep bo*h rebellion and slavery out of 
existence, wherever it may roll." 

THE PROCLAMATION CONFESSED A FAILURE. 

The Springgeld (Mass.) Republican, a warm 
administration paper, frees its mind after the 
following fashion, in reference to the utter 
failure of the proclamation; March, 1863: 

"A great many expectations have been dis- 
appointed, and a great many confident predic- 
tions have failed of realization in the progress 
of this war. In nothing has the disappoint- 
ment been greater than in the results expected 
from the emancipation war policy, by those 
most clamorous for it. They were very cer- 
tain that the proclamation would give tha Union 
cause a quick and sweeping triumph, and the 
President was fiercely denounced by politicians 
and persons of his own party, for allowing the 
'sacrifice of Northern men' to go on when with 
a stroke of his pen he could remove the 'cause' 
of rebellion, and make it impotant for mischief. 
It was said that as soon as liberty should be 
pioclaimed to the negroes, we should see the 
Southern soldiers scattering to their homes to 
look after the chattels and the negroes gener- 
ally revolting and hastening to enlist under the 
standard of the Union, and so the necessity 
for further fighting on our part was to be re- 
moved. The predictions were made and re- 
peated with so much confidence, that before the 
President issued his proclamation, many of his 
own party had come to consider him guilty, 
almost to the extent of treason, in delaying to 
speak the word which was to act like magic in 
the salvation of the Union. The style of men- 
ace in which the President was addressed on 
the subject is fresh in public recollection, al- 
though some who used it would now be glad to 
have it forgotten. 

''Well, it is more than five months since the 
President announced his intention to proclaim 
emancipation, and two months since the proc- 
lamation was formally made, and the negroes 
still remain quietly on the Southern planta- 
tions. The rebel armies have not dispersed to 
hunt flying negroes, but are larger and strong- 
er than ever before. The market price of ne- 
groes is at its highest — the negroes within our 
lines show no passionate eagerness to fight, and 
even Gen. Hunter has been obliged to resort to 
forcible conscription to fill up his negro regi- 
ments, and that too, where the expedient of 



174 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



making negro' soldiers has been longest in ope- 
ration. Neither are the promises ©f the dread- 
ful effect of the proclamation upon the people 
of the North realized Gov. Andrew's 'swarms' 
ao not throng the roads of Massachusetts, and 
Tolunteering has been at a stand still. As to 
the political effect of the proclamation, at the 
North, nothing can be said. The enthusiasm 
it has evoked, has all been on the ivrong side, 
and some of the most ardent advocates of 
emancipation have been so disheartened by 
this, that they began before the proclnmation 
had been out a month, to talk about letting the 
South go, if we cannot subdue the rebellion 
before May. [That was Greelej'.] The pre- 
text of our malcontents, that the proclamation 
is powerless, because it does not declare free 
the slaves in the loyal states, is not even spe- 
cious; it is merely absurd." 

CALEB B. SMITH PLEBGES THE ADMINISTRA- 
TION. 

During the time which the lion. Caleb B. 
Smith acted as Mr. Lincoln's Secretary of 
the Interior, he addressed the Republicans of 
Providence, R,. I., and from that address we 
make the following selections, to show what the 
"Government" pledged its good faith to the 
people on this subject: 

"It is the question of domestic servitude that 
has rent asunder the temple of liberty. What 
is there in this question of slavery that should 
divide the people? [Sure enough.] * * * 
The theory of the Government is, that the 
states are sovereign within their proper spheres. 
The Government of the United States has no 
more right to interfere with the institution of 
slavery in South Carolina, than it has to inter- 
fere with the peculiar institutions of Rhode 
Island, whose benefits I have enjoyed to-day. 

* * '^"" It has been my fortune to be se- 
lected as one of his [the President's] constitu- 
tional advisers. 1 have had the honor of being 
connected with this Administration since its 
commencement, and I tell you to-night, that 
you_ cannot find in South Carolina a man more 
anxious, religiously and scrupulously, to ob- 
serve all the features of the Constitution, re- 
lating to slavery, than Abraham Lincoln. 

* * ■" My friends, we make no war upon 
Southern institutions. AVe recognize the right 
of South Carolina and Georgia to hold slaves, 
if they desire them. But. my friends, we ap- 

peal to you to uphold the great honor of our 
glorious country, and to leave the people of 
that country to settle their domestic matters 
according to their own choice, and the exigen- 
cies which the times may present. * ■:^- * 
"It is not theprovince of the Government of 
the United States to enter into a crusade 
against the institution of slavery. I would 
proclaim to the people of the states of this 
Union, the right to manage their institutions 
in their own way. I know that my fellow citi- 
zens will recognize that as one fundamental 
principal on which we commenced this contest. 



Let us not give our opponents any reason to 
complain of in this respect. Let us not bring 
to bear upon them thejoo?^^^ of despotism, but 
the power of a people of a Republican Govern- 
ment, where the people rule." 

Mr. Smith was no doubt honest iu the above 
sentiments, but the utterance of them cost him 
his seat in the Cabinet, for from that day the 
radicals gave the President no rest until his 
exodus was made certain. 

We have thus given a pretty full chapter of 
the rise, progress and decline of the Adminis- 
tration, in its negro policy, and if that policy 
shall have no worse effect than to demonstrate 
the inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies of hot- 
bed politicians, then we may thank God for the 
power of a saving grace, that can check the 
most sinister machinations of fallen man ! • 

MR. MADISON ON EMANCIPATION. 

Mr. Madison, the "father of the Constitu- 
tion," in a debate on this subject, in the Con- 
stitutional Convention of 1787, used the fol- 
lowing language. \_See Elliott^ s Delates, v. 3, 
p. 621. 

"I was struck with surprise when I heard 
him (Mr. Wythe) express himself alarmed with 
respect to the emancipation of slaves. Let me 
ask, if they (the North) should even attempt 
it, if it would not be a usurpation of power. 
Thereis no poxoer to ivarrant it in tliat papier ^ 
(the Constitution). If there be, I know it not. 
But, why should it be done? Says the honor- 
able gentleman, 'for the general welfare; — it 
will infuse strength into our system.' Can any 
member of this committee suj^pose that it 
(emancipation) will increase our strength? 
Can any one believe that the American con- 
gress will come into a measure which will strip 
them of their property, and discourage and 
alienate the affections of five-thirteenths of the 
Union? Why was nothing of this sort arrived 
at before? I believe such an idea never enter- 
ed into an American heart, nor do I believe it 
ever will enter into the heads of those gentle- 
men who substitute unsupported suspicions for 
reasons." 

This was the harshest language used by Mr. 
Madison in all the debates of the first Consti- 
tutional Convention. The idea of emancipa- 
tion was so absurd to him that he could not 
conceal his indignation, notwithstanding he 
was at that time faking a Constitution for a 
state of war, as well as peace, with the experi- 
ence of a long and bloody struggle before him. 

LORD DUNMOEE'S PROCLAMATION. 

During the Revolution, Lord Dunmoee is- 
sued a proclamation to excite the negroes 
against the Colonists. We refer the reader to 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



175 



the Eighth Volume of Bancroft's History of 
the United States, where the historian thus 
sets forth the matter: 

"Encouraged by 'this most trifling success,' 
Dunmore raised the King's flag, and, publish- 
ing a proclamation, which he iiad signed on the 
7th. ho established martial law, required every 
person capable of bearing arms, to resort to 
his standard, under penalty of forfeiture of 
his life and property, and declared freedom 
'to all indentured servants, negroes or others, 
appertaining to rebels,' if they would 'join for 
the reducing the colony to a proper sense of 
its duty.' The eifect of this invitation to con- 
victs and slaves to rise against their masters, 
was not limited to their ability to serve in the 
army. 'I hope,' said Dunmore, 'it will oblige 
the rebels to disperse to take care of their fam- 
ilies and property.' (But it didn't.) The 
men to whose passions he appealed were either 
criminals, bound to labor in expiation of their 
misdeeds, or barbarians, some of them freshly 
imported from Africa, with tropical passions 
seething in their veins, and frames rendered 
strong by abundant food and out-of-door toil; 
they formed the majority of the population — at 
tide-water — and were distributed among the 
plantations, in clusters, around the wives and 
children of their owners, so that danger lurked 
in every house. * * * At Dunniore's pro- 
clamation, a thrill of indignation ran through 
Virginia, effacing all differences of party, and 
rousing one strong, impassioned purpose to 
drive away the insolent power by which it had 
been put forth. * * ••" 

"But, in truth, the cry of Dunmore did not 
rouse among the Africans a passion for free- 
dom, [nor does it to-day.] To them, bondage 
in Virginia, was not a lower condition of being 
than their former. They had no regrets for 
ancient privileges lost; their memories promp- 
ted no demand for politflal changes ; no 
struggling aspiration of their own had invited 
Dunmore's interposition; no memorial of their 
grievances had preceded his offer. [And this 
was precisely the case with Mr. Lincoln's 
proclamation ] 

"What might have been accomplished had 
he been master of the country, and had used 
an undisputed possession to embody and train 
the negroes, cannot be told; but as it was, 
though he boasted that they Clocked to- his 
standard, [just as the abolitionists do now,] 
none combined to join him from a longing for 
an improved condition, or even for ill-will to 
their masters." 

TIIURLOW weed's PREDICTION. 

Thurlow Weed, in a letter to the New 
York Commercial Advertiser, thus records his 
predictions relative to the "Bull against the 
Comet." 

"The solicitude is now intensified by the at- 
titude, arrogance and insolence of abolition 
journals, representatives and lecturers. In 
assuming to discover, in the President's proc- 



lamation a 'new ;)"l'cy.' and one which con- 
verts and perverts tho ■.<■ ir, waged in defense 
of the Governnieut auil Unoion into a crusade 
against slavery, / see sure and swift destruc- 
tion! In Wendell Phillips' avowal, that the 
abolition motto is '■Death to Slaver;/ or the 
Union.'' endorsed by the Tribune 2,n^ Independ- 
ent, I see, unless the tior.sonable sentiment be 
rebuked, a dividrd North, [The very thing we 
chai'ged as tne object,] with two-thirds of the 
people against this fanaticism." 

MR. LINCOLN ON FEDERAL AUTHORITY. 

On the 6th of March, 1862, Mr. Lincoln 
transmitted to Congress his message, recom- 
munding rem-uneration for slaves by appropri- 
ation from Congress, &c., in which he speaks 
of initiating an emancipation scheme on the 
free will basis of state action and national pe- 
cuniary aid He says: 

"I say initiatory, because, in my judgment, 
gradual and not sudden emancipatieu is better 
for all. In the mere financial or pecuniary 
view, any member of Congress, with the census 
tables and the Treasury reports before him, 
can readily see for himself how very soon the 
current of expenditure of the war would pur- 
chase, at a fair valuation, all the slaves in any 
named state. Such a proposition on the part 
of the General Government sets up no claim 
or right by Federal authority to interfere wiih 
slavery tvi thin state limits, referring as it does 
the absolute control of the subject in each case 
to t^e state and its people immediately inter- 
estedP 

THE CHICAGO PLATFORM. 

The above when read in connection with the 
following plank in the Chicago Platform, does 
not well comport with the subsequent action of 
the President and his friends. This is the 4th 
plank in said platform: 

"4. That the maintenance inviolate of the 
rights of the States, and especially the right of 
each State to order and control its own domes* 
tic institutions, according to its own judgment, 
exclusivehj, is essential to that balance of pow« 
er, on ichich the perfection and endurance of 
our political fabric depends?'' 

Here it is laid down as a political axiom that 
the " maintenance inviolate" of the right of 
each State to regulate its own domestic con- . 
corns in its own way, is essential — that is — ^'*^- 
necessary — to that "balance of power" on 
which the ^'■perfection and endurance of our 
political fabric depends." 

Well, as this right is now disputed by the 
radicals, and ignored by the Administration, 
we have a right to infer that it is in contempla- 
tion to destroy the "perfection and endurance" 
of our political fabric. In other words, to dis- 






17(3 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS, 



solve the Union. For, if the Republican thesis 
was right in I860, their conduct now is not 
only wrong, but aims at dissolution, for are they 
not destroying what they declared in 1860 to be 
'■'■esscntiaV^ to Union? No other corolary can 
be drawn from the proposition and conduct of 
the Administration. 

POSTMASTER CENERAL BLAIR AS A WITNESS- 

Fortunately we were not left to our own 
opinion or ipse dixit, but will refer the reader 
to the speech of Post Master General Blair, 
at Rockville. Md., October 3, 1863. His 
speech seems to have been in reply to the Ar- 
ticle in the Atlantic Monthly, by Charles 
Sumner, which advocated the ''State Suicide" 
doctrine. We do not endorse all that Mr. B. 
says, but give his reasons in full, that they 
may be compared with the conduct of the Ad- 
ministration, to which he is officially attached: 

SPEECH OF HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR AT ROCK- 
VILLE, Ml)., OCT. .3, 1863. 

'■^Fellow Citizens: — I congratulate y^u on 
the hopes just inspired by the circumstances 
under which we have met to-day. The pro- 
gress of our armies gives us good reason for 
believing that peace will soon be restored to- 
our country, and that when it comes it will be 
an enduring peace, because obtained bj pre- 
serving the integrity of the government, and 
because it will be followed by the early suppres- 
sion from our system of the institution of do- 
mestic slavery, which occasioned most of the 
difficulty in the founding of the goverHment, 
and has been the only cause which ever serious- 
ly endangered its existence. But even whilst 
we are indulging in these well founded hopes 
that our country is saved from destruction by 
rebellion, we are menaced by the ambition of 
the ultra abolitionists, which is equally despot- 
ic in its tendencies, and which, if successful, 
could not fail to be alike fatal to republican in- 
stitutions. 

"The slaveocrats of the South would found 
an oligarchy, a sort of feudal power, imposing 
its yoke over all who tilled the earth over which 
they reigned as masters. The abolition party, 
whilst pronouncing phillippics against slavery, 
^ seek to make a caste of another color, by amal- 
' sramating the black element with the free white 
labor of our land, and so to expand far beyond 
the present confines of slavery the evil which 
makes it obnoxious to republican statesmen, 
and now, when the strength of the traitors 
who attempted to embody a power out of the 
interest of slavery to overthrow the govern- 
ment is seen to fail, they would make the man- 
umission of the slaves the means of infusing 
their blood into our whole system by blending 
with it "amalgamation, equality and fraterni- 
ty." The cultivators of the soil must then be- 
come a hybrid race, and our government a hy- 



brid government, ending, as all such unnatu- . 
ral combinations have ever done, in degraded, 
if not in abortive generations, and making 
serfdom for the inferior caste — the unmixed 
blood of the conqueror race inevitably assert- 
ing a despotism over it. To facilitate this pur- 
pose a concerted appeal is now made to the 
people of the free states through the press to 
open the way to this daring innovation, begin- 
ning in the Southern states, unhappily now 
brought under the ban by the Calhounite con- 
spirators. 

"With this view it is proposed to declare the 
State governments vacated in that section 
where they are restored to the Union, and all 
the loyal men of the South whom the treason 
of Presidents Pierce and Buchanan, in com- 
plicity with southern traitors, has subjugated, 
are to come under absolute submission to the 
representatives of the Northern States in Con- 
gress, without vestige of a State right, a State ^N( 
law, or constitution to protect them — nay, not / 
even the franchise of a vote to send a solitary 
representative to the Legislative body to which 
their destiny is to be committed. Simultane- 
ously three leading organs — the Chronicle, at 
Washington, boasting a sort of official sanction; 
the Missouri Democrat^ the ultra abolisher of 
Fremont graft, at St. Louis, and the Atlantic 
Monthly, which lends to the parent stock, at 
Boston, all it can boast of literary strength and 
elegance — have struck the key-note of revolu- | 
tion, the sheer abolition of State constitutions "^ 
in the region suffering under the rod of the re- 
bellion. 

"The article in the Atlantic Monthhj may 
justly be quoted as the programme of the move- 
ment. It presents the issue on which the abo- 
lition party has resolved to rest its hope of 
setting up its domination in this country. The 
boldness that marks the announcement of its 
design to assume for Congress absolute power 
over the states req||vered to the Union, without 
allowing representation for them in the body, 
argues much for the confidence of those who 
never attained an ounce of political weight un- 
til they threw themselves into the scale of the 
republican party adjusted at Chicago, wherein 
state rights, even the most doubtful one assert- 
ing exclusive power over the subject of slavery 
was recognized. 

S i"And now in this discussion (says tlie new ukase) we 
are brought to the practical question which is destined to 
occupy so much of public attention. It proposed to bring 
the action of Congress to bear directly upon the rebel 
states. This may be by the establishment of provisional 
governments, under the authority of Congress, or simply 
by making the admission or recognition of the states de- 
pend upon the action of Congress. The essential feature 
of the proposition is, that Congress shall a.ssume jurisdic- 
tion of the rebel states." 

"One would suppose that "the action of Con- 
gress" had been already brought to bear "di- 
rectly on the rebel states," by the armies which 
Congress has raised and sent against the rebel 
states; or to use exact language, the states in 
which the rebels enforce a usurpation over the 
loyal people. 

"But it is not over the states in the hands t)f 
rebels that the abolition programme proposes to 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



177 



assume jurisdiction; but over the states when 
wrestedfrom the usurpation of rebels, and in 
condition to be restored to the control of the 
loyal people. Against these political military 
bodies now exerting the force of government in 
that portion of the United States in which the 
rebellion reigns for the time triumphant, the 
Union wages war, but it does not wage war up- 
on the loyal people, upon the constitution they 
recognize — or the true constitution — upon the 
pirit and toi'ms of their government, upon its 
archives or property. Ou the contrary, the 
whole system as part of the Union subsists and 
is respected by the nation, and only remains in 
abeyance where the rebels hold sway' by force 
of arms. It is against this rebel organization, 
against the persons and property, the moans 
and instrumentalities of the rebels, that the 
United States make war, in defence of the loy- 
al men and loyal governments. 

"The assumption that certain states of the 
south are extinct — annihilated by the rebellion 
— and that a Congress composed of representa- 
tives from the states in which the rebellion 
does not exist has the right to consider the 
sister Republics where the insurrection for the 
moment prevails as dead bodies, to be disposed 
of as they please when they get possession, is 
abhorrent to ever;/ principle on ichich the Union 
was founded. No member of the Union, nor 
the government of the whole, tan act upon any 
of the States in the mode prescribed by the 
constitution. They are all bound to guarantee 
to each a republican form of government, and 
that is a government adopted by the people, for 
it is the essence of republican government that 
it shall emanate from the people of the State. 
"The Federal Government derives its power 
from the same source, and it is on the people 
and through the people that it must act as a 
nationality, and not upon the states, blotting 
them out of existence by a supposition, while 
their constitutions, laws, archives, property, 
all survive, and a loyal people to give them 
activity the moment that constraint is thrown 
oii". The abolition programme assumes, on 
the contrary, that because violence has trod- 
den down state governments and state rights, 
'they have ceased to exist; that a loyal people, 
in whom they still survive and have being, and 
to whora the United States stands pledged to 
guarantee them forever, must also have per- 
ished, and that a Congress of the other states 
may step in and take .absolute authority over 
the whole region, as vacated states, territory, 
and legislate for it — founding this new assump- 
tion upon fictions as absurd as those on which 
rebellion founds itself. 

"The abolition programme ascribes all our 
calamities to "the pestilent pretension of State 
rights.' The discontent with the treaty be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain, 
called Ja3''s treaty, originated in 'pestilent 
state rights.' The famous resolutions of Vir- 
ginia and those of Kentucky usually known as 
the resolutions of "98, sprung from 'pestilent 
state rights.' The Missouri controversy about 
the prohibition of slavery, the first South Car- 
olina outbreak., the contest in Congress about 



abolition petitions, about the recognition of 
Hayti, about Texas, about the Wilmot proviso, 
about the admission of California, the discus- 
sion of the compromise of 18.50, the Kansas 
question — 'all this audacity was in the name of 
state rights.' If we except from this aggrava- 
ted list charged to 'pestilent state rights,' the 
incipient treason of the South Carolina or- 
dinance, there was nothing beyond the whole- 
some discussions incident to parties in free 
governments, in which state rights made no 
resistance to national authority. This denun- 
ciation of the party influence derived through 
appeals to state rights during this eventful and 
prosperous period of our history, proves that 
it proceeds from a parti/ hostile at heart to free 
debate, the canvasses, the active employment of 
the checks and balances of our complicated 
system of national and state governments 
which are essential to the vitality of all its 
parts, and enables all to take a just share of 
the power which moves the whole machinery. 
In their view our history is a pestilence from 
Washington's time to this hour, when it is pro- 
posed to annihilate state rights as the remedy. 
We are told that this is effected first by 'state 
suicide.' 

"The states themselves committed suicide, so that as 
states they cease to e.xist, leaving their whole jurisciction 
open to the occupation of the United States under the 
Constitution." 

"Burke is quoted to make good this posi- 
tion. 

"When men," .says P.urke, "tlierefore break up the or- 
iginal comiiact or agreement which gives its corpor,ate 
form or c.ipacity to a state, they are no longer a people. — 
They have no longer a corporate fornr or e.xistencc," &c. 

"The programme adds: 

"If that great master of eloiinencc could be heard, who 
can doubt that he would blast our rebel states as senseless 
communities, who have sacriticed that corporate existence 
which makes them living corpoiatc members of our union 
of st.ates." 

Burke might blast the "rebel States," but 
would he blast Missourri, Arkansas, Louisiana, 
Mississippi, Tennessee, and all the rest of that 
noble sisterhood of States which, with their 
loyal people, have in succession been trodden 
under foot by a military force? Have the peo- 
ple who resisted at the polls, and who still re- 
sist in arms, united with their brethern under 
the flag of the Union wherever it appears, sac- 
rificed that corporate existence which identi- 
fies themselves and their States as "living 
component members of our Union?" Is not 
the Union and its cot stitution identified as 
"that corporate existence" with the States 
which makes them all — those trodden down and 
those standing up — component members of our 
Union States? How can the Union, which is 
the guarantee of the government of every re- 
public of which it consists, admit while it lives 
that any part of it is dead? It does not admit 
it. It is at war in every State of the Union at 
this moment, co-operating with the loyal in 
each entitled to its special sovereignty, to crush 
the traitors who violate it. As members of 
the Union, the States assailed by treason may 
be said to be paralyzed; but they live in all 
i their vital powers, ready for resurrection, in 



178 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



the persons of their loyal people, the moment 
the stone is rolled away. The traitors only 
will have committed political suicide. 

"The man recovpi-ed from the Mto, 
The Jog it was tUat died." 

"I allow that "it is a patent and undisputed 
fact that this gigantic treason was inaugurated 
■with all the forms of law," and that "the 
states pretended to withdraw bodily in their 
corporate capacities," which is the ground 
work of the second proposition of the pro- 
gramme, viz: 

"That tlie states, by their flagrant treason, have for- 
feited their rights aa states, so as to be civillj' dead." 

"But the Federal Government is very far 
from admitting that "the forms of law" em- 
ployed by the rebels, or the fact that "the 
states pretended to withdraw bodily" affected 
in the least the legal status of the states in 
question. Treason was committed not by any 
State, but by the individuals who made use of 
the forms of the state governments and attempt- 
ed to dismember the National Government. — 
The suggestion that states, guaranteed by the 
Constitution as under the shield of the Union, 
can in any way be held responsible for this 
treason, and subjected to a forfeiture of their 
rights as a consequence, shows affinity of the 
abolitio7iists to the nuUifiers. Calhoun's whole 
scheme was based on the proposition they now 
adopt, that the states could "withdraw bodily 
in their corporate capacity." 

"The true doctrine, as laid down by the 
fathers of the constitution, is. that the employ- 
ment of the forms of the state governments, 
and the pretense of withdrawing them in their 
corporate capacity out of the pale of the na- 
tional authority, does not shift the responsi- 
bility from the traitors to the people. Hamil- 
ton, in the Federalist, marks the change on 
this point effected by the adoption of the con- 
stitution. He says: 

"The great and radical vice in the construction of the 
existing Confederation is the principle of legislation for 
states or governments in their corporate collective capaci- 
ties, and as contra distinguished from the individuals of 
whom they consist." ^ 

"He emphasizes this proposition in the 
strongest manner, by the use of capitals, in 
order to condemn the policy of acting on states 
instead of criminal individuals of whom they 
consist. 

"The aim of the abolitionists is now to ac- 
complish this very thing in defiance of the Con- 
stitution. They demand that Congress shall 
attach the treason in the south, plotted in se- 
cret and sprung upon the nation by a body of 
oath-bound conspirators, to the people of the 
whole region, and insist that they have forfeit- 
ed their rights in their corporate and collective 
capacities for the treason of these individuals. 
It asserts the power of legislation over the 
states or governments, instead of applying the 
law of treason to the guilty individuals to whom 
alone in the very nature of things it is applica- 
ble. No learning is necessary to enable one to 
see that a state cannot he guilty of treason or 



any other crime. Only common sense is want- 
ed to comprehend that guilt cannot be imputed 
to any but a sentient being, and only common 
honesty is required to perceive the injustice of 
disfranchising loyal citizens on account of the 
offences committed by the disloyal. 

"But the manifesto I am considering comes 
at last to the conclusion that these modes of 
retiring the states out of the Union are unsat- 
isfactory. 

" 'I discard (says the writer) all theory, whether it be 
of state suicide or state forf-jitvire, or stateaboUtion, on the 
one side, or state rights, immortal and unimpeachable, on 
the other side. Such discussions are only endless mazes 
in which a whole Senate may be lost . ' 

"Verily, such contemptuous flinging away of 
states and sfate rights as of no better stuff than 
may be overlaid with cobwebs and dust — such 
flimsy arguments as state suicide, state forfeit- 
ure, state abdication, might, if indulged in, 
reduce the Senate to a lost condition. And the 
process of this scheme shows how readily it 
might be merged into a consolidated head. — 
Here is the recipe which disposes of states and 
senators without resorting to the troublesome 
fiction of state suicide, state forfeiture or state 
abdications. 

"The ukase continues : 

"And, in discarding all theory, I discard also the ques- 
tion of de jure — whether for example, tlie rebel states, 
while the rebellion is flagrant, are de jure states of the 
Union, with all the rights of states. It is enough that, 
fir the time being, and in the absence of a loyal govern- 
ment, they can take no part and perform no function in 
the Union, so that they cannot be recognized by the na- 
tional government. The reason is plain. There are in 
these states no local functionaries bound by coustitutional 
oaths — so that there are, in fact, no constitutional func- 
tionaries — and, since the state government is necessarily 
composed of such functionaries there can be no state gov- 
ernments. " 

"This is summary reasoning, but it begins 
by an assumption that there are no other states 
but rebel states, cutting out of the question 
the existence of the states de jure, which have 
subsisted since the foundation of the govern- 
ment to this hour, and the existence of which 
the United States are bound to guarantee and 
maintain, and is at this moment fighting the 
bloodiest battles known to modern annals to 
support, against the most excuseless treason 
and shameless counterfeit authority that evei' 
put on the mask of government. It may be 
readily conceded that 'rebel states" are not de 
jure states of the Union, with all the rights of 
states, and that 'as they can take no part and 
perform no function in the Union, so they can- 
not be recognized by the general government.' 
But does it follow that states are wrenched 
from the Union because the usurpers hold a dis- 
puted tottering power within their territorial 
limits? States every day recognized as states 
in the Union, states whose constitutions, l»fws, 
archives, loyal citizens, public edifices, lands, 
and properties of all sorts, are recognized and 
held sacred, not only in the hearts of loyal 
patriots of this and every other civilized coun- 
try, but which the government of the nation 
recognizes as forming a member of it in every 
ofBcial act, and by every officer at home and 
abroad, who has occasion to refer to them. 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



179 



"More than a million of brave men have left 
their homes, and one hundred thousand of 
them, at least, have laid down their lives to 
put down the conspirators and lift up the loyal 
men in whose sacrifice it was designed to sac- 
rifice the Union. To what purpose have our 
glorious soldiers devoted themselves? To de- 
stroy the rights of the true men they went to 
save, together with the rights of these states 
consecrated to the Union by memory of the re- 
nown that belongs to our history? And on 
what pretext is it that states which fought the 
battles of our independence — states older than 
the Union, and which labored in its construc- 
tion, are to be disfranchised of the rights that 
Union is pledged to guarantee to them under a 
Republican form of government as equal in the 
Confederation? 

"Congress is to take to itself parliamentary 
powers — disfranchise certain states, declare 
others to be mere territories, having no gov- 
ernment, and this because 'there are in those 
states no local functionaries bound by consti- 
tutional oaths,' so that in fact there are no con- 
stitutional functionaries, and since the state 
government is necessarily composed of such 
functionaries, there can be no state govern- 
ment. And what fatal results come upon the 
states from the want of local functionaries 
bound by constitutional oaths. Therefore, 'no 
constitutional functionaries !' Therefore, 'no 
state governments.' And, finally, the want of 
'local functionaries bound by constitutional 
oaths' extinguishes the states in one-third of 
the Union, and their destiny is scaled with 
this pronicnciajiieriio — 'the whole broad rebel 
region is tabula rasa, or a clean slate, where 
Congress, under the constitution, may write 
the laws.' 

"It is strange that a party bases such im- 
mense power on such an immaterial fact that it 
might be mistaken as to the existence of the 
fact. The states involved in insurrection 
have multitudes of magistrates, state and Uni- 
ted States Judges, and other sworn function- 
aries, ready to resume their functions the mo- 
ment the rebel military duress is removed, and 
the whole machinery of the state governments 
■will be put in motion by the election of repre- 
sentatives and all civil officers as soon as the 
military power of the Union has accomplished 
its duties. In the meantime, are not the state 
governments in the hands of their appropriate 
functionaries, bound by constitutional oaths, 
•when the army of the nation is in their midst? 
Then our army and its officers are at this in- 
stant executing in all the states proposed to be 
disfranchised their most appropriate functions 
in breaking the x-ebel power and lifting up and 
invigorating the state authority everywhere. 

"In this way the most potent recognition the 
Union can afford is given to the Union. Not 
only army and navy and President give this 
recognition, but Congress, in voting men and 
money to erect this grand retinue, pays its 
homage to the endangered States, of whose 
maimed condition the ultra abolitionists would 
take advantage to reduce to territories and 
strip them of the rights of republican govern- 



ment. In this Congress proves its just appre- 
ciation of our Federal system as conceived by 
its authors. Madison, in the Federalist says: 

"The Stiite governments may le reganieii as con.istituent 
and essential parts of the Federal government, whilst the 
latter is no wise essential to the operation or organization 
of the former. AVithout the intervention of the State 
Legislatures, the President of the United States tannot be 
elected at all. They must in all cases have a just share in 
his appointment, and will, perhaps, in most cases of them- 
selves determine it," Ac. 

"The consequence of this imposed as a duty 
on tlie part of the general government to each 
state a guarantee of a republican form of gov- 
ernment, which supposes a pre-existing gov- 
ernment of the form which is to be guaranteed, 
and in effecting this guarantee, both Madison 
and Hamilton unite in saying the Union may 
interpose in crushing the dominant majority in 
a state. ■ Madison thus touches this point: 

"At first view it might not seem to square with the Re- 
publican theory to suppose either that a majority have not 
the right, or that a minority will have the force tosnbvert 
a government, and consequently that the Federal interpo- 
sition can never be required but when it would be impro- 
per. But theoretic reasoning in this as in most c ises must 
Ije qualified by the lessons of practice. Why may not il- 
licit combinations for purposes of violence be formed as 
well by a majoritj- of a state, especially in a small state,as 
by a majority of a county or district of the same state,and 
if the authority of the state in the latter case to 
protect the local magistracy, ought not the Federal au- 
thority of the state ought in the latter case to protect the 
local magistracy, ought not the Federal authority in the 
former to support the state authority? Besides, there are 
certain parts of state constitutions interwoven with 
the i^ederal Constitution that a violent blow cannot be 
given to the one without communicating the wound to the 
other," &c. 

"He asks again: 

"Is it true that force and right are necessarily on the 
s^mesidein republican governments? May not a minor 
party possess such a superiority of pecuniary means, of 
the military talents and experience, or of secret success 
from foreign powers, as will render it superior also in an 
appeal to the sword? May not a more compact and ad- 
vantageous position turn the scale on the same side against 
a superior number so situated as to be less capable of a 
prompt and collected exertion of its strength? Nothing 
can be more chimerical than to imagine that in a trial of 
actual force victory may be calculated bj' the rules which 
prevail in a census of the inhabitants, or which determine 
an election." 

"Hamilton, in his paper, shows the propriety 
of the Union interposing by force to protect a 
state government against internal foes, upon 
the score that usurpers, clothed with the forms 
of legal autority, can too often crush the op- 
position in embryo. Against this anticipated 
danger he points to our happy federation of 
state governments for safety. He says: 

" 'Power being almost always the rival of power, the 
General (jovernment will at times f 
the usurpation of state governments, 
the same disposition towards the f 

The iieople, by throwing themselves into either scale, will 
infallibly make it preponderate. If their rights are in- 
vaded by either, they can invoke the aid of the other as 
the instrument of redress. How wise will it be in them, 
bv cherishing the Union, to preserve to themselves an ad- 
vantage which cannot be too hiijhly prized.' 

"And yet the abolitionists would begin the 
work of demolishing this system, by disfran- 
chising one throwing out one-third of the states 
at the \ery moment the Union is working out 
the salvation of the nation in the mode pre- 
scribed in its charter 



>^ 



lys the rival of power, the i 

times stand readj' to check ■; — J 

iments, and these will have j~ 

:he General Uoverninent. — / 



180 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



■'The abolition manifesto protests against 

"The instant rfistoration of the old state governments 
in all their parts through the agency of loyal citizens, who, 
meanwhile, must be protected in this work of restora- 
tion." 

'•And why may not the loyal citizens per- 
form this most escntial and patriotic duty? 

"Because," adds the paper, '-it attributes to the loyal 
citizens of a rebel state, however few in numbers — it may 
be an insignificant minority — a power clearly inconsistent 
with the received principle of popular government, that 
the majority must rule. The seven votes of old Sarum 
were allowed to retun two members to Parliament, be- 
cause this place, once a Roman fort, and afterwards a 
sheep walk, many generations before, at the early casting 
of the House of Commons, had been entitled to thisirep- 
resentation; but the argument for state rights assumes 
that all these rights maybe lodged in voters as f(^w as 
ever controlled a rotten borough in England." 

"The argument of Madison, which I have al- 
ready quoted, indicates the principle of the 
Constitution which sends the masses of the 
United States into a state to assert the rights 
of a loyal minority over an usurping majority 
there. But the sneer at the loyalty of the 
South in the suggestion of Old Sarum is unjust. 
Notwithstanding the conspiracy at work in se- 
cret societies and in public bodies throughout 
the United States to undermine the loyalty of 
the South for thirty years; notwithstanding two 
Northern Presidents joined this conspiracy — 
the one wielding the powers of the Federal 
Government to add Kansas as a state to rein- 
force it, and the other sending the navy into 
distant seas to give it security, and the army 
into the remote West, to be surrendered, with 
all the posts, forts, navy-yards, mints, muni- 
tions of war, custom-houses, national edifices, 
and wealth of all sorts — thus, in effect, making 
the nation itself an ally of treason, notwith- 
standing the President of the United States 
thus betrayed the states of the South into the 
hands of the conspirators with the means of 
the nation to strengthen them in the possession 
of the governments they usurped; the Presi- 
dent declaring by message to Congress, that 
they could not be coerced, still the traitors 
could not bring a majority of the voters to the 
polls in any of the states but South Carolina 
to countenance the usurpation. 

■'In Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Ken- 
tuckj', Tennessee, ^Maryland and Virginia, a 
majority vo'cd against secession, in defiance 
both of the lurking armed conspirators who 
pervaded the whole South to control its will, 
and the insulting taunts of the Abolitionists, 
who now wish to disfranchise them — to 'let 
them go.' Does it become any party in this 
country, pretenditig fealty to republican gov- 
ernment, to sneer at a loyalty which has passed 
through such an ordeal, and which still bears 
up under the cruelty of an armed tyranny, 
which has improved on its experience in the 
school of slavery — treating the loyal men of 
the South worse than slaves? 

'•I turn from the abolition programme to 
that which is presented by President Lincoln. 
The issue is made; we must choose one or the 
other. His plan is simple. He would disha- 
bilitate the rebels and their usurpation called 
a Confederacy of the States, and rehabilitate 



the loyal men and their States and republican 
governments. To do this he must break the 
power of the conspirators; crush or expel them 
from the region of the insurrection, restoring 
in the persons of loyal citizens within the con- 
fines of their respective states the republican 
governments which now have their administra- 
tion committed to our loyal armies and loyal 
citizens who have their protection. As soon 
as this protection is needless, the state govern- 
ments resume their functions under officers 
chosen by citizens who have been true to it, 
and by such others as may be comprehended in 
an amnesty, and who have given in a sincere 
adhesion to it and the government of the Union 
and the measur?^ taken in its maintenance. 

"Missouri; whose Governor, Legislature and 
Judicial officers betrayed her, expelled her 
faithless representatives with the aid of the 
Federal government, and filled their places 
with loyal men, abolishing slavery as an ear- 
nest of her abhorrence of the means and the 
ends for which the conspirators against the 
Union labored. Kentucky, temporarily paral- 
yzed by the treachery of her Governor, was 
soon put right by the people when furnished 
with arms by the government, carried to them 
by the lamented and gallant Nelson. In Mary- 
land the attempt to turn her over to the rebels 
was crushed by the arrest of treasonable legis- 
lators. Virginia was overwhelmed for a time; 
but Western Virginia, being delivered from the 
armed brigands, called a convention, elected a 
Legislature for the whole state (the greater 
part of it lieing still held by the rebels), was 
recognized as the law making power of the 
whole state, as such divided the state and set 
up a new state in the west. 

"This exemplifies the President's mode of 
saving the Union. He saves the States, ptit- 
ting the powers of the government as soon as 
they are redeemed into the hands of loyal men, 
and then the State resumes its place in the 
councils of the nation with all its attributes 
and rights. He has signified his ijurpose of 
inviting Tennessee and Louisiana — now in 
preparation — to follow these examples, and 
every other State, as soon as it can be rescued 
from the rebel armies, will be aideil to come 
in and reintegrate the grand f;imily of repub- 
lics. 

"Now, what is the pretext for abandoning 
this safe and healing policy of the President? 
So far it has worked well, and secured the ap- 
probation of all well-wishers of the country. — 
The abolition programme shows somewhat of 
the motive for converting states into rerritories, 
and carrying them back into colonial bondage, 
to take law from Congress without representa- 
tion. The reasons assigned: 

" 'Slavery,' gays the programme, 'is impossible within 
the e.vchisive jurisdiction of the national government.' 

"For many years I have had this conviction, 
and have constantly maintained it. I am glad 
to believe that it is impossible, if not expressed 
in the Chicago platform. Mr. Chase, among 
our public men, is known to accept it sincerely. 
Thus, slavery in the territories is unconstitu- 
tional ; but if the rebel territory falls under the 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



181 



exclusive jurisdiction of the national govern- 
ment, then slavery is impossible there. In a 
legal and constitutional sense, it will die at 
once. The air will 6e too pure for a slave. I 
cannot doubt but that this great triumph has 
been already won. The moment that the states 
fell, slavery fell also, so that without any proc- 
lamation of the President, slavery had ceased 
to have a legal or constitutional existence in 
every rebel state. 

"In concert with the elaborate article in the 
Atlantic Monthl)/. a department organ, the 
•Chroyikle, at Washington, strikes the key note 
of state annihilation, in a leading editorial: 

" There is (says this print) a conflict of authorities — of 
State and Federal authorities — and it is clear that one or 
the other must be annihilated. If the State succeeds, the 
Federal authority is gone forever; nothing can restore it; 
not even the State itself which destroyed it; for in this 
case the Federal authority would become subordinate to 
the State authority, and be no government at all. For 
the same reason, if the Federal authority prevails, and 
succeeds in putting down the rebellious states, must the 
authority be destroyed." 

And then the case is put of the present 
conflict: 

" in which several states combine against their common 
Federal Government. 

"Here the power to be overcome is not only greater, but, 
in a moral point of view, far more dangerous to the Fed- 
eral government . Hence when such a rebellion is sub- 
dued, it is not only necessary to destroy the treasonable 
element in such rebellious state, bu( also the power which 
these states had to combine against the Federal authori- 
ty," kc. 

"In conjunction with these movements at 
Washington and Boston to annihilate the state 
governments which preceded and helped t'o 
create that of the nation itself, the coadjutors 
of Presidential schemers in St. Louis and 
throughout Missouri are endeavoring to throw 
that state into the cauldron of revolution, that 
it, too, may be annihilated or declared vacat- 
ed as one or the other of the counts of "state 
suicide," "state forfeiture," "state abdica- 
tion," the '■'■ tabula rasa" or clean slate on 
which Congress may write the laws it pleases. 

"Does not the extreme anxiety evinced in 
certain quarters in these forces, efforts to pre- 
vent the states dropped out of the Union by 
conspirators from returning under the aus- 
pices of the President, the patriotic army of 
the Republic, and the loyal citizens who would, 
through them maintain their own and the 
rights of the states in question indicate some- 
thing of a design to command a great event in 
prospect by revolutionary measures. Is a ban 
upon one-third of the states, marking them 
for exclusion from the Union, when treason is 
defeated and the traitors expelled, as just, as 
•wise, as constitutional, as likely to end the 
troubles of the country, as that marked out 
and pursued by the President? 



"It is manifest now that the President must 
steer his course through the strong conflicting 
tides of two revolutionary movements — that of 
the nulUfiers, to destroy tlie Union and set up 
a Southern Confederacy, and that of the ultra 
abolitionists, which has set in to dischanfrizo 
the South on the pretext of making secure the 
emancipation of the slaves. The attempt of 
the nuUifiers is rebuked from the cannon's 
mouth, and the proposal of France to secure 
their object for her friendly mediation is put 
aside by the President telling the Emperor 
that he will confer with the rebels through no 
indirect medium; that Senators and Represen- 
tatives in Congress coming from the Southern 
States, and bringing with them an earnest of 
returning loyalty, will be met as equals and 
admitted te the councils that are to dispose of 
the destiny of the nation. 

"Alterations in its laws must be made by 
Congress; changes in the constitution by dele- 
gations in convention from all the states, ac- 
cording to the terms of that instrument. This 
is the final response of the President to the 
rebels and to the French Emperor. To the re- 
volutionary demand for the disfraHchisement of 
the southern states, the President's i"eply from 
his first message to the last, and all his pub- 
lished letters, has been uniform. It is couch- 
ed in the words I read you from his proclama- 
tion : 

"Hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted 
for the object ot» practically restoring the constitutional re- 
lation between the United States and each of the s'ates, 
and the people thereof, in which states that relation is or 
may be suspended or disturbed." 

"The proclamation answers the demands for 
the enfranchisement of the slaves. It is conce- 
ded from the necessity of growing out of the 
rebellion, and to quell it. But it closes with 
this salve for the loyal sufferers under this de- 
cisive measure: 

"The Executive will in due time recommend that all 
citizens of the United States who have remained loyal 
thereto throughout the rebellion shall, upon the restora- 
ration of relations between the United States and the peo- 
ple, if that relation shall have been suspended or dis- 
turbed, be contpensated for all losses by acts of the United 
States, including the loss of slaves." 

"The issues are thus made up between the 
President and the rebels and their foreign 
sympathizers, who would revolutionize our gov- 
ernment to create a separate government in the 
South, on the one hand, and on the other hand 
between the President and the ultra abolition- 
ists, who would disfranchise the southern sec- 
tion of our country. It is not improbable that 
the latter, though aiming at a different result, 
will be found co-operating in the end with con 
spirators of the South and their foreign allies. 
They may prefer parting with the South to 
partnership and equality under the constitu- 
tion." 



^. 



182 



^FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

CONFISCATION— VIOLATION OF TIIK CONSTITU- 
TION, &c. 

The Confisealion Scheme. ..The Constitution Ignorol... 
Testimony of Senator Co¥ an. ..Political F.xtrem*^ Com- 
I^areil... Postmaster General lilair on Secessionists and 
Abolitionists. ..Commenis of "National Intelligoncer " 
...Senator Doolittle on Colonization and Emancipation... 
The Three '-Solutions": Of Calhoun, John Brown, 
(the s'xme as Radicals), and Jefferson. ..Doolittleon Con- 
fiscation. ..Also, on Same and Abolition Denunciations of 
the "Government "...A Kepublican Journal on Senator 
Doolittle. 

THE CONFLSCATIOS SCHEME. 

We will not offer opinions of our own on 
this subject, but will be content to favor the 
reader with a few gems from Republican 
sources. 

Hon. Mr. Cowan, a Republican Senator 
from Pennsylvania, made a speech in the Sen- 
ate on the Coniiscation bill, on the 4th of 
March, 1862. We give his i-emarks at great 
length, not fearing to be called "traitor," for 
we quote from one who votes the Republican 
ticket: 

"This bill proposes to go forward and strip 
the whole population of the South of their 
property, and reduce them to ix)verty — and 
while yet 400,000 of them have arms in their 
hands. If there is anything calculated to make 
that entire people our enemies always, it will 
be the promulgation of such an act as this. — 
Will they yield to us any sooner in view of 
such a destruction? What would we ourselves 
do under any such circumstances? I need 
hardly ask that question of nien who have de- 
scended from sires who refused to pay a pal- 
try tax on tea, and from grandsires who raised 
a revolution rather than pay twenty shillings 
ship money — that I think was the amount de- 
manded from Hampden — a revolution which 
cost King Charles' head. No such sweeping 
measure as this has ever been enacted, even in 
the days of William the Conqueror. The proud 
Norman and his barons were content with the 
fiefs and castles of the Saxon leaders. They 
did not dare to strip the people of their prop- 
erty, nor even much increase their burdens. 
They knew that, victorious as they were, 
they would have involved themselves in a far 
more dangerous struggle, in which every peas- 
ant would have been a principal combattant. — 
The English in their contest with, and bills of 
attainder against, the Irish never attempted to 
touch the possessions of the common people — 
but only the property of the nobles. This 
bill goes farther, and attempts to confiscate 
another species of property Avhich cannot be 
put into the coifers of the conqueror. I mean 
the property of slaves. I dont intend to stop 
to discuss the question of properly of this 
kind. It is enough for me to say that all the 
South seem to agree as to the kind of property 
■with wonderful unanimity, and to resent any 



interference with it. This bill proposes to lib- 
erate 3,000,000 of slaves— truly the most tre- 
mendous strike for universal emancipation ever 
attempted in the world. Indeed. I think it 
virtually liberates the whole 4,000,000. What 
is to be the effect of this upon the war? Shall 
we be stronger, or shall we find that we have 
only doubled the number of these men in arms 
against us ? They now have no cause for re- 
bellion. Will not this furnish them one ? 
[That was precisely what the Radicals were 
driving at.] Let the loyal men of that section 
who know them, answer this question. I will ' 
abide the answer. 

"I submit again that no deliberative Assembly 
ever before sat in judgir.ent on so stupendous 
an issue. Yes, as if to blind us still more, 
this bill has a proposition of still greater diffi- 
culty; that is, to take these millions and trans- 
fer them to some tropical clime, and to to pro- 
tect them there with all the rights and guar- 
ties of freemen. / find this all provided for 
in a sinqle section^ and a single section of 
nine lines! Truly, we must recently have 
transported ourselves from the domain of prac- 
tical facts and set down in the romantic re- 
gions of Hastern fiction Do the advocates of 
the measure propose to confer upon the Presi- 
dent the gold-making touch of Midas? Noth- 
ing short of the ring and lamp of Alladin, 
with their attendant genii, would insure the 
success of such a scheme, unless it is believed 
that the Treasury note [greenbacks] possesses 
this power. And even under that supposition, 
I think the owners of these Southern climes, 
and the transportation companies, ought to be 
consulted in regard to the legal tender clause. 
* * * Ti- Then, again, there is a fourth 
consideration in this bill, and one of still great- 
er moment, which is, that it is in direct con- 
flict U'ith the constitution of the United States,* 
requiring of us, if we pass it, to set aside and 
ignore that instrument in its most valuable and 
fundamental provisions — those whicli guarantee 
the life and property of the citizen, and those 
whitk define the limits and boundaries of the 
several Departments of this Government. 
Pass this bill, and all that is Ifft of the consti- 
tution is not worth much — certainly not worth 
this terrible war, which we are now waging for 
it — for be it remembered that this war is waged 
solely for the preservation of the constitution. 
[Mr. Cowan must be a Republican copperhead.] 
1 am aware that some think that the Con- 
stitution is a restraint upon the conduct of this 
war, which they suppose could be carried on a 
great deal better without it. I have no hesita- 
tion in saying that no greater mistake has ever 
been made anywhere, than is made by such 
people. I atii afraid it will amount to a con- 
fession that they Jiave not carefully examined 
the full scope of its provisions. The greatest 
dangfr is, that these propositions, at the first 
glance, seem probable, and even plausible. 
They are not the rolling breakers which every 
one may see, but the sunken rocks, which are 
(/// the more dangerous, because theg are hiddi7i. 
Therefore I am opposed to this bill, and I will 
proceed to give my reasons, and show, if I can, 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



183 



why I think that in its main provisions, it is 
unriecessaru, impolitic, iiiexpedient, und, I may 
add, utteriji and totally useless, and I think I 
can show that the Government has all the pow- 
er under the Constitution which is necessary 
to put down this rebellion, aad punish the reb- 
els, and that there is not, in reality, any ne- 
cessity for straining any of its provisions in 
anyway." 

Mr. Cowan then goes into a lengthy disqui- 
sition, both able and conclusive, to show that 
the confiscation bill was a clear violation of the 
Constitution, and that it would weaken, instead 
of strengthen our cause. We regret that our 
space will not admit the whole of this able, 
conservative speech, but we have given enough 
to show the drift of the honorable Senator's 
argument. 

We know that with a certain class of radical 
disunionists it is useless to talk about the Con- 
stitution. One might as well attempt to whistle 
down a whirlwind. The radicals are mad. 
Flushed with power and gorged with spoils, 
they are determined to l?reak up the Union. It 
is, in fact, broken up, and never can be re- 
stored, e-xcept by and through the conservative 
element of the country. If they continue in 
power, all such conservative Republicans as 
Senator Cowan must be jostled aside, to make 
room for some '"first rate second rate" dema- 
gogue. Alas, our Constitution is no more. Its 
demise has been predicted and pronounced 
by the ablest men that belong to the reigning 
traitorous dynasty. 

POLITICAL KXTREMES COMP.iRBD. 

Metaphors are sometimes very useful in il- 
lustrating ideas, causes and effects. The Re- 
■publican politician sometimes feels insulted if 
you call him an Abolitionist, though that reti- 
cence is now wearing off, since leading Re- 
publicans (Gov. Stone, of Iowa, for e. ff.) ad- 
mit this is "an Abolition war." But, as the 
Republicans and Abolitionists have acted to- 
gether and voted together since 1854, and all 
now pursue the policy and dogmas that distin- 
guished the Abolisionists years ago, we feel 
justified in using the metaphor of Col Ben- 
ton, who said that the Abolitionists and Re- 
publicans were like a pair of shears, working 
on a common fulcrum, to cut the Union in 
twain. Doesticks, or some other humorous 
writer, says there is no more difference between 
a Republican and an Abolitionist than there is 
between two links of sausages, made from the 
same dog! They may also be likened to two 



persons placed back-to-back at the North Pole, 
and walking in apparently opposite directions, 
yet both are going due South. But, we will 
let Post Master General Blair give his views, 
which link these two factious with the South- 
ern secession extreme, forming a most baneful 
trinity. 

In Mr. Blair's speech at Concord, New 
Hampshire, he said: 

"There are two knots of conspiring poli- 
ticians at opposite ends of the Union that make 
slavery a fulcrum on which they would-play 
see-saw with the Government, and Avillingly 
break it in the middle and demolish it to make 
experiments with the factions in reconstruc- 
'tions suited to their designs, which are only 
known as hostile to the well-balanced Consti- 
tutions inherited by our fathers. The Calhoun 
and Wendell Phillips Juntos have both sought 
the accomplishment of their adverse ends by a 
common means — the overthrow of the Consti- 
tution. Calhoun's school would destroy every 
free principle, because repugnant to the per- 
petuity and propagation of slavery universally 
as the only safe foundation of good govern- 
ment — Phillips's school would subject all our 
systems of goverment to the guillotine of rev- 
olutionary tribunals, because they recognise 
the existence of different races among us, of 
white, red, and black; because they repudiate 
the idea of equality and fraternity in regard to 
citizenship that tends to produce that amalga- 
mation, personal and political, which would 
make our Government one of mongrel races; 
and because they authorize legislation, state 
and national, which may exclude them from 
taking root in the soil and government of the 
country. The white man has excluded the In- 
dian race from dominion on this continent, its 
native-born. original inheritor; the African was 
introduced on it, not as its owner or to give it 
law, but to be owned and receive law; and un- 
der this aspect the white man, as a conqueror, 
has accommodated the constitutions of the 
country to his own condition — that of the ru- 
ling race. The ground which Wendell Phil- 
lips and his followers take is not merely to 
alter the law and enfranchise the races held 
under it as inferior to that holding the domin- 
ion by right of conquest, but to abolish the 
constitutions which recognise that right as es- 
tablished, and admit to equal participation 
those races hitherto excluded as inferiors." 

After remarking, says the National Intelli- 
gencer, that the Fnge States of the North ex- 
clude the manumitted slaves from their soil, 
avowing the abhorrent feeling of caste as an 
insuperable bar to the association on any terms, 
much less of equality, Mr. Blair asks how it 
can be expected that the people of the South- 
ern States will acquiesce in arrangements 
which proceed on the assumption that this ex- 
communicated race, surrendered by them as 



184 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



slaves, should be retained, nevertheless, 
among them, and admitted as equals and as 
partners in political power, in defiance of the 
Constitution of the United States, and the 
laws even of the Northern States, which brand 
them with the badge of inferiority and politic- 
al disability ? He adds ; 

"Would not the inextinguishable memory of 
wrongs on one side, and of admitted mastery 
on the other, make patient acquiescence on 
either side impossible ? All the bloodiest rev- 
olutions of ancient and modern times have 
been those broached by slaves against enslav- 
ers. Our civil war, closing in the manumis- 
sion of four million of slaves, to take equal 
rank with six million of enslavers, would be" 
but the prelude to a servile war of extermina- 
tion. The advocates of this hybrid policy 
know this, but they think the negi-o so essen- 
tial to the selfish purposes of their political 
ambition that, like Calhoun, they are willing 
to make him, as well as those who hold him in 
durance, the victim of their policy." 

We place these sayings on record, for the 
time is at hand when the Democracy can make 
good use of them. 

SENATOR DOOLITTLE ON COLONIZATION AND 
EMANCIPATION. 

Mr. DoOLiTTLE, on the 19th of March, 18G2, 
in the United States Senate, delivered the fol- 
lowing remarks. Let everybody read them: 

"I know it is sometimes said that the object- 
ion which is felt on the part of the white pop- 
ulation to living side by side on a footing of 
social and civil equality with the negro race is 
mere prejudice. Sir, it has its foundation 
deeper; it is in the very instincts of our nature, 
which are stronger and oftentimes truer than 
reason itself. Men of wealth and fortune, men 
of high wrought education, and men of rank 
and position, who are removed above the trials 
and sympathies of the great mass of laboring 
men, may reason and theorize about social and 
political equality between the white and the 
colored race; but I tell you as a practical fact, 
it is simply an impossibility. Our very in- 
stincts are against it. Let us look at the facts, 
and neither deceive ourselves nor deceive any- 
body else. How do the people of the free states 
stand on this question? In my state there are 
so few colored men that there is now no great 
feeling on the subject oim way or the other; 
but suppose it should no\VT)e proposed to dis- 
tribute the whole negro population equally 
among the states, which would bring into the 
state of Wisconsin about one hundred and 
twenty thousand, say seven thousand to Mil- 
waukee, and from one to two thousand to each 
of the towns of Racine, Madison, Jancsville, 
Kenosha, Watertown, Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, 
and other places, what would be the feelings 
then? What would our people, native and for- 
eign-born, say to that? Sir, they would prob- 



ably feel and say just what the people of Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois feel and 
say on this subject. Illinois has just held a 
convention and formed a new constitution, 
which excludes free colored men, as did the | 
old constitution. Indiana has a similar pro- 
vision, either by constitutional requirement or 
by legislative enactment. Ohio had until 
quite recently, a law by which a free coloreil 
man was required to give bail for his good be- 
havior. Nor are the people of New England 
devoid of this same feeling either. By the 
laws of Massachusetts intermarriages between 
these races are forbidden as criminal. Why 
forbidden? Simply because natural instinct 
revolts against it as wrong. Come down to the 
practical question whether, if the whole negro 
population of the United States should be set 
free, and be apportioned and distributed among 
the several states, and you would find just as 
much repugnance in New England as you now 
see exhibited in Illinois, Indiana, or Pennsyl- 
vania. Their humanity would rejoice at their 
freedom, but their instincts would shrink back 
at their apportionment. 

"Sir, when we come to the thing itself, and 
look it squarely in the face, it is a very im- 
portant question what is to be done in relation 
to this race of people when they r\ve emanci- 
pated. Within this District, and within the 
territories, we have all power and all respon- 
sibility. V/ithin the several states, however, 
it belongs to them and to their people. They 
have the undoubted right to regulite, as they 
have always regulated, their own policy upon 
this subject for themselves. We know how 
much that policy varies, in free as well as slave 
states. In some free states they have civil 
rights alone; in others, political rights, also. 
In others still, they are forbidden to come at 
all. The slave states have poculiar policies of 
their own. In none are free negroes allowed 
to come. Some will not allow a negro to be 
emancipated unless he is taken out of the state; 
and within the last few ye.irs some of them 
have passed most cruel laws to compel those 
already free to leave the state or be reenslaved 
and sold at the auction block. 

"All this goes to demonstrate that Jeiferson 
knew as much about the question as the new 
lights of the present day. He, who was him- 
self the author of the declaration of the equal 
rights of all the races of mankind, declares to 
you also as a fact indisputable, that the two 
races upon the same soil, side by side, in any- 
thing like equal numbers, cannot and will not 
live together upon a footing of equality. 

"To illustrate this feeling in the slave states 
still further, I will state another fact not gen- 
ei'ally known, and I do so upon the authority 
of Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, in 1856, 
when he was Governor, there were fears of a 
negro insurrection in that state. Li.rge num- 
bers of the non-slaveholding white population 
called upon him as Governor fo.- arms. For 
wnat purpose? To prevent an insurrection of 
the slaves? This was the alleged purpose; but 
he ascertained the fact to be that these men 
were conspiring to massacre the whole negro 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



185 



population in that section of the state, and he 
was compelled to call out the militia, not to 
prevent negroes from raising in insurrection, 
but to prevent the whites from destroying them 
altogether. 

'■I know this bill relates only to slaves in 
the District Columbia, and my amendment to 
to colonization from this District only; but it 
naturally opens the whole field of discussion 
of the true relations of the two races towards 
each other. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, 
Monroe, Clay and .Jackson, not only loved 
libertj' as ardently as wo do, but they under- 
stood this question of race in all its bearings. 
It is well kcown they all favored emancipation 
with colonization. I state a fact not generally 
known, that General Jackson, when President, 
in Cabinet councii, intending to carry out this 
policy, proposed the purchase of some territory 
from Mexico, to become the homes of free 
colored men, to be occupied as a territory for 
themselves and all who should become eman- 
cipated. But the troubles growing out of the 
treason of Calhoun postponed any definite ac 
tion. 

"But the day for action is at hand; it cannot 
be postponed. There must be a solution. It 
belongs, it is true, mainly to the people of the 
states. Some responsibility, however, rests 
upon the Federal Government. It has the un- 
doubted power, by treaties with Hayti, Libe- 
ria, and other tropical states, to acquire rights 
of settlement and of citizenship for all free 
persons of African descent who may desire to 
migrate to those countries, and thus, with very 
little expense gain free homesteads for tnem 
and their children forever. This would open 
the way for the slaveholding states, if any of 
them desire to avail themselves of the opportu- 
nity, to emancipate and colonize their slaves, 
and thus open their own rich fields to be for- 
ever the homes of the pure Anglo-Saxon race. 

"There are, and there can be, in my judg- 
ment but three solutions to this negro question. 
One is the solution of John Calhoun, one of 
John Brown, and a third midway and equally 
removed from both extremes, the solution of 
Thomas Jefferson. 

Calhoun's solution. 

"Calhoun and his followers, Toombs and 
Davis, say, in substance : 

"Slavery is a blessing to mankiud, black and white. — 
Extend it everywhere; reopen the slave trade, bring all 
Africa into Slavery, to christianize and civilize the negro 
race ; buy if you can, if not, seize Cuba and all central 
and trophical America; plant slavery all around the 
Gulf of .Mexico and the Cairibbean Sea, until the slave- 
holding aristocracy, proclaming 'cotton as king,' reaching 
through the valley of the Orinoco to the v.alley of the 
Amazon, shall shake hands with the slaveholding empire 
of Brazil. Then shall slavery, the great Dagon at whoso 
shrine we worship, hold within its embrace a monopoly 
of the sugar and the cotton of the world." 

"This is the solution of southern fanaticism; 
this is the dream of southern mad ambition. — 
It is a gigantic dream. Could they have held 
the Government for one or two administrations 
more, they would have struggled to realize it. 
13 



But the power was wrested from their hands. 
Their dream is broken, and for that they make 
war upon the Government they could not hold. 

JOHN BEOWN's solution. 

"The second is John Brown's solution. It 
is based on this idea — that all the negro popu- 
lation of the United States shall be instantly 
set free, by act of Congress, cr by arms, where 
they now are, side by side with their masters, 
throughout all the slave states, and placed on 
a footing of equality, entitled to all the rights 
of mannood, civil and political of the citizens 
of those states; at once trampling down the 
rights of the states, and producing a system of 
equality which would bring the laboring white 
man and the laboring colored man precisely 
upon the same level, to compete for wages in 
the same market. This, of necessity, where 
their numbers bear any proportion to each 
other, must lead to an "irrepressible conflict" 
of race, and to the expulsion of one or the 
other, or to amalgamation of races, to produce 
in the Southern States the same condition that 
exists in Mexico, making them into mulatto 
states, and thus solve the negro question. 

"This is the John Brown solution. The 
first, through Davis and Toombs, fourteen 
months ago, said, 'down with the Constitution; 
give us anew Constitution, to carry slavery all 
over Mexico and Centi-al America, as fast as 
we can acquire it, or we will destroy the Gov- 
ernment.' The second cries, 'down with the 
Constitution. It is a covenant with hell. It 
gives Congress no power to abolish slavery in 
the states. Make a new Constitution.' Sir, I 
will not yield to the demands of either. 

Jefferson's solution. 

"I have stood and will continue to stand for 
that solution of the negro question which Jef- 
ferson, the author of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, himself, proposes, which, while it 
will in the end give universal liberty to uni- 
versal man, will gradually and peacefully sep- 
arate these two races for the highest good and 
to the joy of both; giving to each in their own 
place the enjoyments of their rights, civil, so- 
cial, political. That solution is in accordance 
with that law of the Almighty by which the 
black man dominates the tropics, and always 
will; by which our race dominates the tem- 
perate zone, and will forever. It is easier to 
work with Him than against Him. When we 
accept the solution of Jefferson, which falls 
neither into the fanaticism of the one nor the 
blindness ^f the other, we shall see the begin- 
ning of the end of that irrepressible conflict, 
more of race than of condition, which has dis- 
turbed us so long. Until it be saved, there 
can be no permanent peace. 

"Mr. President, what idea underlies the 
war now going on? The leaders of the rebel- 
lion were goaded to it by mad ambition. Slave- 
ry was their pretext; but the great mass of the 
non-slaveholding people were deluded into it. 
They were told, and became maddened at the 
thought, that the pui-pose of the Republican 



186 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



party is not merely to prevent sl.ivery going 
into the territories and abolish it in this Dis- 
trict, where we have the power, but that its 
real purpose is to overturn slavery iu the 
states : to put the black man there upon a foot- 
ing of social and political equality with them- 
selves and their wives and children. They 
were made to believe that John Brown was its 
true representative; that if Mr. Lincoln should 
be elected, the slaves would be set free and 
armed against their masters. They believed 
it. That belief brought before their eyes, to 
be re-enacted at their own homes, all the hor- 
rors of St. Domingo — fire, rape, and slaughter; 
dwellings burned, children butchered, wives 
and daughters ravished upon the dead bodies 
of their husbands and fathers. They were 
made to belive it all. That belief drove them 
to frenzy. That alone roused in their breasts 
a passion too strong for their patriotism. That 
alone made them desert the iiag of the Union 
and take up arms against this Government. 

"What we mny constitutionallj' and justly 
do to confiscate the property, including slaves, 
of the leading conspirators upon whom this 
crime rests, which 

"Hell, with all Its powers to damn," 

can hardly punish, I will not now consider; I 
may do so on some proper occasion hereafter. 
I will only now say, that if we now do just 
what they charged us with intending to do; if, 
by one sweeping act of Congress, we declare 
the HI n,o<liiite and unconstitutional emancip.v 
tion of ail the tlavcs in all the states, to re- 
main forever wiihin the states against the will 
of the people iu those states, we shall make 
true every prophecj' of our enemies against us, 
and make false the pledges we made in the can- 
vass of 1860, on which we won the victory, and 
by which alone we brought this Administration 
into power. This course would make us appear 
to be false and hypocritical before God and 
man. For one, I will not consent to do it. I 
say to my friends here, there is no Republican 
on this floor who took pai't in the canvass of 
1860, who did not a hundred times over declare 
that we had neither the constitutional power 
nor the purpose to interfere with slavery with- 
in the states. How then can we now advocate 
a doctrine in violation of every pledge we then 
gave, and on which we came into power? Shall 
we now make true evci-y charge of our enemies 
against us, charges which we denounced as 
false and infamous? Shall we make them true 
instead of false prophets by our actions now?" 

SENATOR DOOLITTLE ON CONFISCATION. 

Senator Doolittle of Wisconsin, made a 
speech on the 2d of- May, 1862, on the Con- 
fiscation bill; 

fin the United States Senate, May 2d, 1S62.] 
"Mr. Doolittle, (rep.) of Wisconsin, said 
there were never such grave considerations 
presented in any bill before Congress. The 
first section might reach thousands of millions 
of dollars of property, and the second section 



would emancipate at least 2.000,000 slaves. 
and indirectly, perhaps, the whole 4,000,000. 
He thought, at least, half the slaves belonged 
to rebel masters. 

"Mr. Sherman, (rep.) of Ohio, in his seat 
— Seven-eighths. 

"Mr. Doolittle — My friend spys seven- 
eighths. That makes the case still stronger. 

"Mr. W^ade, (rep.) of Ohio, in his seat — 
And still better. 

"Mr. Doolittle continued, and said the con- 
stitution was just as supreme in withholding 
as granting powers, and if Congress under- 
takes to trample on the constitution by usurp- 
ing powers not granted, it is fust as much re- 
beLlian and revolution as the acts of the insur- 
rectionary states. Jf the Federal government 
can thus usurp potvcr, then the days of the Re- 
public arc past, and the days of Emp)ire begu?i. 
Congress has power to punish treason and sup- 
press insurrection. The bill of the Senator 
from Illinois is framed under the power to sup- 
press insurrection, and the bill of the Senator 
from Vermont (Mr. CoUamer) framed under 
both these powers. He contended that the 
limitation of the constitution in regard to bills 
of attainder prohibits Congress forfeiting real 
estate, except during life; but does not apply 
to personal estate. That was absolutely con- 
fiscated on conviction of treason, and even be- 
fore judgment. He quoted from Blackstone 
and Chitty, and the opinion of Joel Parker, of 
Massachusetts, in support of his position. He 
had studied this question anxiously, and he 
was convinced that Congress had no power to 
confiscate the real estate beyond the life of the 
person. It was perfectly clear that when our 
fathers put the prohibibition to confiscate real 
estate in the constitution they knew what they 
were doing, and meant what they said. He 
had introduced a bill, therefore, to reach the 
real estate by taxation, in which way he thought 
it could be done. Heheld that, under the con- 
stitution. Congress had the right to declare 
what shall be contraband of war, and subject 
to capture as to our own citizens, not foreign- 
ers; but real estate was not subject to capture 
within the meaning of the constitution — such 
as can be made a prize of", it must refer to per- 
sonal property." 

MR. doolittle charges THE UNITED STATES 
SENATE WITH A WANT OF "SYMPATHY" 
FOR THE ADMINISTRATICN. 

On the 11th of July, 1862, thf Confiscation 
bill was still pending in the Senate. 

Mr. Doolittle made the following remarks 
inreferrence to the same, and also lashed his 
"loyal" brethren of the Senate for their want 
of sympathy with the Administration, &c. 

"It has been sometimes objected that some 
of us on this floor have not gone so far on the 
subject of confiscation as some other gentle- 
men, because, in the view we take of the Con- 
stitution, that instrument expressly forbids the 
ferfeiture or confiscation of .the real estate of 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK 



187 



traitors beyond their lives. It is in vain that 
gentlemen, by calling these traitors public en- 
emies in war, attempt to make the'm anything 
else than traitors. Treason consists in levy- 
ing war against the United States, and those 
who do so are traitors, and nothing more or 
less than traitors. The very point decided by 
Judge Swayno was, that rebels in arms against 
the United States are not enemies within the 
meaning of the Constitution, but traitors, and 
nothing else. Congress is forbidden to forfeit 
the estate of a traitor, except during his life, 
,^ by attainder of treason, which at common law 
T reached and forfeited his real estate only. I 
• read the authorities bearing on that question 
on a former occasion, and no gentleman on this 
floor has offered a single authority to the con- 
trary. The authox-ities which I quoted were 
conclusive. They demonstrated that at the 
common law the real estate of the traitor, which 
he held in his own right, or over which he had 
the power of disposition, was the real estate 
and the only real estate liable to 'forfeiture, 
and that it was expressly to limit the forfeiture 
of that during the lifetime of the traitor that 
our fathers, in making the Constitution, insert- 
ed the words, "no attainder of treason shall 
/ work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, ex- 
Ir- cept during the life of the person attainted." 
"As to personal property, including slaves^ 
they are the subjects of capture in war, and 
Congress is expressly authorized to make rules 
concerning captures on land and water. 

"But the title passes from the owner, not by 
the enactment of the law, feut by the capture, 
and that until the President, by his military 
forces, can put down the armed forces of the 
rebels, and get possession of their country, and 
make the captures, the law of Congress will 
have no more effect inputting doivn the rebel- 
lion than in puttinQ doirn the rebellion in Chi- 
na. If a law of confiscation would have such 
marvelous results as some suppose, whv not by 
act of Congress canfiscate Vhq poivder and ball 
and muskets and canno?i of the enemy, and 
that would end it at once. Sir. it needs some- 
thing more than paper shot, acts of Congress, 
and impassioned speeche.s of Congressmen. I 
will not, however, repeat these views, nor 
dwell upon these authorities at this time. 

"But, sir, I feel called upon to notice a re- 
mark made the other day by the Senator from 
Ohio. [Mr. Wade.] He denominated those of 
us who hold to these opinions, referring to my- 
self and others, 'weak brethren.' Weak in our 
disposition to prosecute this war against the 
rebels? AVeak in our sympathies for the loyal 
cause! As if we had a desire to cover up 
traitors' property and cover up treason! Let 
me tell that Senator that the most efficient 
means to put down the rebellion is not the en- 
actment of unconstitutional laics by Congress^ 
but by marching our military forces upon the 
•-~ rebel enemy; that nothing will do it but ball 
and bayonet. Nothing can overcome ivar but 
war! War is an appeal to the god of force, 
and we must bi'ing force against force. It is 
not hy speeches here, nor resolutions, nor acts 



of Congress that this rebellion can be crushed. 
It is to be put down at the point of the bayo- 
net. And if from the beginning of this ses- 
sion the only word of Congress had been 'men 
and money,' and of the Executive 'forward 
march, charge bayonet, a little more grape,' 
and nothing else, we should be nearer the end 
of the rebellion than we are at this hour. We 
have spent too much time and wasted too much^..^^ / 
energy in finding fault with each other, incriti- ^<. 
cising our generals in the field, and criticising / 
and thux weakening the confidence of the coun- 
try in the Administration. * * * 

"Sir, this is the spirit I would inruse into 
every American heart. In this day of our 
trial, in this hour of blood, and agony, and 
tears, when the hearts of this people, disap- 
pointed iu their expectations before Richmond 
are stricken, and the hopes of timid men be- 
gin to fail, it is no time for Senators of the 
United States to be standing here publicly de- 
nouncing the Administration, or denouncing the 
Generals in command. Now is the time for 
men of real courage, men of abiding faith in 
man and truth, and God, whom temporary re- 
verses do not cast down, and daugei-s do not 
appal, to speak to the country, to the Presi- 
dent, and to the civilized world words of en- 
couragement and good cheer. Let them know 
that in the midst of apparent disasters, in spite 
of threatened intirventiou from abroad, we, 
the represcututives of American states and of 
the American people, standing fast by the 
Constitution and the Union, here and now re- 
new our pledge before high Heaven, and swear 
by Him who liveth, and reigneth forever, that 
we will put down this rebellion, we will sustain 
this Constitution, and preserve this Union for- 
ever. [Applause in the galleries.] 

"The Presiding Officer — Order! 

"Mr. Doo.ittle — This is the word which I 
^\ould speau, if I had the power, to the hearts 
of all American citizens, and speak it now. 

"Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts — Will the 
Senator allow me to ask a question? 

' 'Mr. Doolittle— Certainly. 

"Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts — I want to 
ask the Senator from Wisconsin this simple 
question: What has the Administration asked 
of the American Senate that has not been 
given cheerfully and freely by the votes of all 
of us, to carry on the war? 

"Mr. Doolittle — I will answer the honorable 
Senator. What the Administration has asked 
of this Senate which it has not had, as it ought 
to have had, is its sympathy, its words of en- 
couragement and support. Instead of that, it 
has often received speeches denunciatory in 
their tone, on this floor, denouncing the policy 
of this and the policy of that, when the Presi- 
dent's hand and heart have been aching and 
almost crushed under the load of these great 
responsibilities, which God, in his providence, 
has thrown upon him. I complain of that. — 
But what is past is past; let us hear no more 
of it. I do not say that you have not voted men 
and money. They have been voted with a lav- 
ish hand; hut he wants more: he wants the 



188 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



hearts of the Senate to sustain him. Let our 
hearts go out towards him, to fight with him, 
and fight for him" 

As the foregoing sentiments were uttered 
by a strong defender of the Administration, it 
may be safe for Democrats sometimes to quote 
them. We are aware that Mr. Doolittle does 
not suit all his "constituenls," and as a sam- 
ple of their displeasure at the utterance of the 
foregoing sentiments, we introduce the late ed- 
itor of the Racine (Wis.) Journal^ who said: 

"We can stand a great deal, but we submit 
that classing Senator Doolittle among the Ab- 
olitionists, is altogether too cool for the seas- 
on. It should be remembered that Mr. Doolit- 
tle is a politician, [Few now dispute it since 
his speeches later than the above, to be seen 
elsewhere] and is not particularly accountable 
for anything he says. When it is for his inter- 
est to say, as he did in Union Hall (Racine) 
that slavery is a divifie institution, established 
and sanctified ly the Ditty, and should never 
be abolished, he says it for some purpose. 
When he votes against giving freedom to a 
slave, who did the government great service 
(as he did in the Senate last summer) he does 
it for a purpose. When he votes with the 
friends of the rebels, against confiscating their 
property, as he did last summer in the Senate, 
he has an object in view; and, when he gets up 
in this Senate and endorses every abolition doc- 
trine that we have promulgated for the last 
twenty years, he has an object in view; when 
he whines out his pious platitudes, and prates 
over his 'honest heart,' and his 'plain spoken 
manner,' then is the time he is seeking afresh 
some profitable office, at the hands of the peo- 
ple." 

Notwithstanding this, the Abolition Legisla- 
ture of 1863 re-elected him to the Senate. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

INDIRECT MODE TO VIOLATE AND NULLIFY LAWS. 

The Personal Liberty Bills of the Various States... Sundry 
Provisions to Nullify the Fugitive Law... A Kadical Or- 
gan admits the Purpose... Schemes of the Plotteia ex- 
posed. 

THE PEESONAL LIBERTY BILLS — 4.NOTHEK 
NORTHERN MEANS TO "rRECIPITATE" REV- 
OLUTION. 

We have thought it proper to record for fu- 
ture use the provisions of Northern statutes, 
passed to virtually abrogate the fugitive act. 
These we have collated as briefly as possible, 
that the reader may see that the Southern se- 
cessionists had plenty of Northern allies. The 
provisions of the Northern "personal liberty 
bills," as these laws were styled, clearly indi- 



cate both the cowardice and animus of the 
party that gave them vitality. Let them speak 
for themselves: 

Maine.— ^. 5., Titled, chap. 80, ^^0^6491. 

§ 53, provides that no Sheriff or other officer 
of the state shall an-est or detain any person 
on'claim that he is a fugitive slave. The pen- 
alty for violating the law, is a fine not exceed- 
ing one thousand dollars or imprisonment not 
less than one year in the County Jail. 

New Hampshire. — Laws of 1857. chapter 
1966, paye 1876. 

^ 1. Admits all persons of every color to the 
rights and privileges of a citizen. 

§ 2. Declares slaves, coming or brought into 
the state, with the consent of the masters, 
free. 

^ 3. Declairs the attempt to hold any person 
as a slave within the state, a felony with a 
penalty of imprisonment not less than one nor 
more than five years. Provided, that the pro- 
visions of the section shall not apply to any 
act laufully done by any ojjlcer of the United 
States or other persons i7i the execution of any 
legal process. 

Vermont.— i?. -y., Title 2.7, chap 101, p.p. 
536. 

§ 1. Prt)vides that no Court, Justice of the 
Peace or Magistrate shall take cognizance of 
any certificate, warrant or process under the 
fugitive slave law. 

I 2. Provides that no officer or citizen of the 
state shall arrest, or aid, or assist in arresting, 
any person for the reason that he is claimed as 
a fugitive slave. 

§ 3. Provides that no officer or citizen shall 
aid or assist in the removal from the state of 
any person claimed as a fugitive slave. 

^§ 4 and 5. Provide.a penalty of §1,000, or 
imprisonment five years in the State Prison for 
violating this act. 

I 6. This act [g§ 1 to 5] shall not be con- 
strued to extend to any citizen of this state 
acting as a judge of the circuit or district 
court of the United States, or as marshal or dep- 
uty marshal of the district of Ver7no7it, or to 
any person acting under the command or au- 
thority of said courts or marshal. 

§ 7. Requires the state attorney to act as 
counsel for alleged tugitives 

II 9 and 10. Provide for issuing a habeas 
corpus and the trial by jury of all questions of 
fact in issue between the parties . 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK. 



189 



Connecticut. — Revised StattUes^ Title 51, 
page 79S. 

I 1. Every person who shall falsely and ma- 
liciously declare, represent or pretend, that 
any FREE person entitled to freedom is a slave 
or owes service or labor to any person or per- 
sons, with intent to procure or to assist in pro- 
curing the forcible removal of such free per- 
son from this State as a slave, shall pay a fine 
of §5,000, and be imprisoned five years in the 
Connecticut State Prison. 

^ 3. Require two witnesses to prove that any 
person is a slave or owes labor. 

g 3. Provides a penalty of §5,000 against 
any person seizing, or causing to be seized, 
any free person with intent to reduce him to 
slavery. 

§ 4. Depositions not to be admitted as evi- 
dence. 

I 5. Witnesses testifying falsely are liable 
to §5,000 fine, and five years' imprisonment. 

Rhode Island.— iZ. /S., Title ZO.chap. 213, 
page 532. 

§ 17. Forbids the carrying away of any per- 
son by force out of the State. 

§ IS. Forbids any judge, justice, magistrate 
or court from officially aiding in the arrest of 
a fugitive slave under the fugitive law of 1793 
or 1850. 

§ 19. Forbids any sheriff or other officer 
from arresting or detaining any person claimed 
as a fugitive slave. 

§ 20. Provides a penalty of §500, or impris- 
onment not less than six months, for violating 
the act. 

Michigan.— r/iZe 37. 

§ 1. Requires the State Attorney to act as 
counsel for fugitives. 

^§ 2, 3 and 4. Grant habeas corpus, and pro- 
vide for trial by jury. 

§ S. Forbids the use of jails or other prisons 
to detain fugitives. 

g 6. Provides a punishment of not less than 
three nor more than five years for falsely de- 
claring, representing or pretending any person 
to be a slave. 

§ 7. Provides a fine of not less than §500, 
or more than §1,000, and imprisonment in 
State Prison for two years, for forcibly seizing 
or causing to be seized any free person, with 
intent to have such person held in slavery. 

§ 7. Requires two persons to prove any per- 
son to be a slave. 



Wisconsin— .ffi. S., chap. 158. sec. 51, ^-c, 
page 312, ^c. 

?il 1, 52, 53, and 54 provide for the issuing 
of the habeas corpus in favor of persons claim- 
ed as fugitive slaves. 

^^ 55, and 56, direct how proceedings shall 
be conducted and grant a trial by jury. 

^ 57, provides a penalty of §1,000, and im- 
prisonment not more than five nor less than 
one year, against any person who shall falsely 
and maliciously declare, represent or pretend 
that any free person within the State is a slave 
or owes service or labor, with the intent force- 
ibly to remove such person from the State. 

I 58, requires two witnesses to prove a per- 
son to be a slave. 

? 59, depositions not to be received in evi- 
dence. 

^ 60, judgment under fugitive slave act not 
to be liens upon real estate. This however, 
can only apply to decree of State courts. 

THE ANIMUS ADMITTED. 

As exhibiting the real animus oi these laws, 
and their aim and purpose to nullify the act of 
Congress and the decision of the Supreme 
Court thereon, we select the following, among 
a numerous class of admissions, from the AVis- 
consin State Journal, of Sept. 19, 1854, when 
such nullification was openly demanded by the 
radical press of the country. The Journal 
said: 

"The modification (of the State law) pro- 
posed, will practically prove an abrogation of 
the law. (The Fugitive Law.) This must be 
understood by those who favor it. (Thatis, the 
proposed 'modification.') Few slave owners 
will desire to incur the cost of reclaiming a 
fugitive. While the nation bears the expense, 
and the free men of the North are compelled 
to pay the larger portion, slave catching may 
be a pleasant business enough for Southern 
'impersonations of the high born aristocrat.' 
But, compel them to foot the bill, on the old 
principle that those who dance must pay the 
fiddler, and the fugitive slave act would become 
as inoperative, in most portions of the Union, 
as it is now in Wisconsin. The average cost 
of reclaiming a fugitive, is more than the best 
proportioned man, or even the most delicate 
and perfect sample of Creole beauty, will bring 
in the shambles of Southern aristocracy. 

"It is not, then, through any tenderness for 
the chivalry that this modification is proposed, 
but merely to accomplish the same end without 
openly avowing the purpose. * * * 

"We may discourse, it matters not, how elo- 
quently, of the sacredness of law, and of the 
necessity of respecting all laivs, but there is 



190 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



not a man among us, except the most depraved 
and unprincipled , who ■woultl not rather openly 
resist its (the fugitive law) execution, or avoid 
complying with its provisions, virtually diso- 
beying it. We ought not then be particularly 
delicate in choosing phrases to express our de- 
termination of ridding ourselves of it if pos- 
sible!" 

Thus the Northern plotters had not the cour- 
age to advocate laws directly annulling the fu- 
gitive act, but like cowards, they advocated 
the "personal liberty acts" to "accomplish the 
same end!^^ 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

ARBITRARY POWER— MILITARY ARRESTS, &c. 

Introductory Remarlvs... Loyalty and Patriotism of the 
North. ..Arbitrary Power used to Destroy the Nortliern 
Unanimity. ..Senator Fessendcn on Stopping Enlist- 
ments. ..Senator AVilson on same. ..General Conclusions... 
The Cause and the Effect... Mr. Lincoln's claim to Un- 
limited Power. ..Order No. 38. ..Trial of Vallandigham... 
Resolves of the Democratic Meeting at Albany. ..Their 
Protest to the President. ..The President's Reply. ..Tlio 
Rejoinder. ..Protest of the Ohio Committee. ..President's 
Reply. ..Committee's Rejoinder. ..The Law of the Case, 
from the "National Intelligencer "...Personal and Le- 
gal Rights. ..Crittenden's Views. ..Abolitionist Fuel Un- 
easjf...Administi-ation Condemned by its own Organs... 
Views of the N. Y. "Post" and "Tribune "...Judge 
Dner on Usurpations of the Administration. ..From the 
"N. Y. World." 

ARBITKART POWER — MILITARY ARRESTS — 
THE WAR POWER AND "MILITARY NECES- 
SITY." 

[In the great mass of articles, taken promiscuously from 
a great variety of som-ces, .and at various times, it is quite 
difficult, in our haste to furnish copy for the printer, as 
the same shall be needed, to properly arrange and assort 
the evidences under this head, so as to exactly confoim to 
chronological order. We will, however, endeavor to place 
the whole easy of access for reference. That is our main 
object. — Ed.] 

As a prelude to what follows, it is but due 
to remark, here. that the Damocracy of the coun- 
try do not, nor have they ever objected to 
any of those extreme military measures that 
experience and the laws of war have dem- 
onstrated as necessary to good discipline, a 
well regulated military police, and to prevent 
and punish crimes and breaches of martial 
law — witJdn the lines of arrmj operations — in 
short, that the rigor of war may exist tcher- 
ever tvar is. But the Democracy and all con- 
servative men do protest against visiting peace- 
ful and loj^al states and communities, hundreds 
of miles away from hostile foes and army ope- 
rations, with all the rigors of arbitrary, mar" 
tial law, without even a necessity or excuse 
being shown for it. 



This class of wrongs has been interpreted by 
the people as an effort solely designed to divide 
and distract the North, with a view to make 
peace and Union irnpossihle. God has given us 
no prerogative to judge of motives, except by 
and through the medium of acts, and when 
judged by this standard, we cannot see how it 
is possible that the unbiased mind can acquit 
those in power from the design charged here- 
in. Before the system of arbitrary arrests was 
inaugurated, the whole North was a unit. — 
There was not so much as a ripple on the sur- 
face of popular feeling — no popular distur- 
bances manifested themselves, to arouse fear 
or excite alarm. The people everj-where in 
the North were not only loyal, but they were 
more — they formed themselves into one solid 
wall of military power, to resist and subdue 
rebellion. In every nook and corner of the 
great, busy and powerful North — in the agri- 
cultural and in the manufiicturing districts — 
from Aroostook to the San Joquin — all was 
astir in common rivalry to see which state, 
which county, which town or ward should be 
the first to answer their country's summons. 
In short, the whole North was one great mili- 
tary camp. 

The whole people, forgetting party — forget- 
ting domestic comfort and happiness — forget- 
ting all save their imperiled country, gathered 
up their wealth, extended their iitmost credit, 
collected their sons, their fa*:hers and their 
brothers, and throwing them all at the feet of 
the President, bad him use them as best he 
might to save liberty, protect and defend the 
Union. In a spirit of generous confidence that 
has no parallel in the world's history, the peo- 
ple at once resigned to the President the entire 
dominion over the purse and the sword, asking 
no conditions, save the defense of personal and 
civil liberty, and protecting the Union of their 
fathers from wanton destruction. We heard 
then no criminations about "laggards," 
"shirks," or "sneaks." The only complaints 
(and they were many) that afflicted officials in 
the discharge of their duties, came from the 
thousands of companies and hundreds of regi- 
ments and parts of regiments that were dis- 
banded and turned away, denied the high and 
noble privilege of offering their sacrifices upon 
their country's burning altar. 

2.50,000 TROOPS TOO MANY. 
Even as late as March 29th, 1862. [see Globe 
of that date"] Senators Fessenden and Wilson- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



191 



thought it their duty to stop enlistments, be- 
cause of some 250,000 soldiers under payjmore 
than vrere needed. 

Mr. Fessexden said (March 28th): 

"There arc more men than the G6vernment 
knows what to do with, here, on the Potomac, 
tj-day. What occasion is there to send for 
others? * * We have 750,000— if that is 
the nu-nber — 2.50,000 more than we ever in- 
tended to have. * * What is the reason 
why we should go on and appoint Generals to 
correspond with a number of men that are not 
needed and are not used? * * I offered a 
proposition the other day to stop all enlist- 
ments until we should get down to the number 
we wanted and no more. My friend from Mas- 
sachusetts (Wilson) said we should have a bill 
soon where I could put on my amendment, I 
have not seen his bill yet. As soon ashebxnngs 
it along, so that I can put un my amendment, 
I will, and hope it will be forthcoming very 
soon. I understand, however, that the Depart- 
ment has absolutely stopped enlistments. But 
whether that be so or not, it is best to reduce 
it to shape, and have a law on the subject. 

SENATOR WILSOX ON SAME SUB.JECT. 

Mr. Wilson (Rep. of Mass.)— -'The Senator 
from Maine (Mr. Fessenden) the other day 
proposed to reduce the number of men author- 
ized by law down to 500,000. I agree with aim 
in that. Still, we have not been able to do it. 
It was suggested also that we ought to stop re- 
cruiting. I agree to that. I have over and 
over again been to the war office and urged up- 
on the Department to stop recruiting in every 
part of the country. We have had the promise 
that it should be done, yet, every day, in dif- 
ferent parts of the country, we have accounts 
of men being raised and brought iorth to fill 
up the ranks of regiments. The papers tell us 
that in Tennessee and other parts of the coun- 
try where our armies move, we are filling up 
the ranks of the army. I believe we have to- 
day 250,000 more men under the pay of the 
Government than we need or can well use. I 
have not a doubt of it, and I think it ought to 
be checked. I think the War Department 
ought to issue peremptory orders, forbidding 
the enlistment of another soldier into the vol- 
untary force of the United States, until the 
time shall come when we need them. We can 
obtain them at any time when we need them." 
—\_See Cong. Globe, March 29, '62. 

Senator Wilson was Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Military AflFairs, and of course 
thought he spoke by card. He had no fears 
that we could not obtain all the men needed, 
when their services were required. The 
unanimous action of the people was an earnest 
of this. 

But, what followed? At once, without excuse, 
cause or palliation, the State and War De- 
partments commenced their system of arbi- 



trary arrests. Victims in large numbers were 
dragged from their peaceful abodes, at the 
criminal hour of midnight and without accusa- 
tion, judge or jury, were bundled off to some 
loathsome cell or military fort, kept there 
from one to twelve months, and finally -'honor- 
ably discharged" without ever being made ac- 
(juainted with the charge or character of the 
"suspicion" against them. 

These arbitrary, despotic and wholly unne- 
cessary acts, justly aroused, as we believe it 
was intended, tha fears and indignation of the 
people. The North was all ablaze with excite- 
ment, and as the arrests "were wholly confined 
to those who professed the Democratic faith, 
it very naturally aroused a most intense polit- 
ical excitement, and from that hour parties 
became arrayed against each other. 

Not content with letting well enough alone — 
not content with the patriotic devotion to the 
country which induced Democrats everywhere 
to forget party and remember only their coun- 
try — not content to rely on that mighty aval- 
anche of strength that had in eight months 
surfeited the Union camps with 250,000 more 
men than the chairman of the committee on 
Military Affairs knew what to do with — not 
content to raise an army of more than twice 
the size of that which the Great Napoleon led 
to Moscow, all for the asking — not content to 
tolerate a united North — this despotic Fire 
Brand being but the forerunner of its twin 
measure, the proclamation — was cast into the 
inflamable matei'ials at the North. It was un- 
necessarj' — it was wanton, and hence believed 
to be the work of design, and that design — 
a division of the North — for a 2}urpose, and 
that purpose has already been divined. 

THE CAUSE AND THE EFFECT. 

The cause is easily tracable to its legitimate 
results. The North has been divided. Volun- 
tary enlistments were entirely suspended, and 
within a month's time after these firebrands 
were cast into the great Northern magazine, and 
for the first time, the cry of a Draft was heard! 
A draft came up from Washington. No one 
can say that the Democracy were in the least 
at fault in this, /or the Republicans themselves 
immediately stopped enlisting. 

When the "powers" at Washington saw this 

disastrous result, what did they do? Did they 

/ stop the cause they had set in motion? No, but 

they gave it new impetus; they aggravated itj 



192 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



they re-enectcd the old French code, or "law 
of suspected persons," and caused wide spread 
alarm among the people by their new leviesto 
fill the LaForce and the Conceigeirre of despot- 
ism. If in all this, any necessity had been 
shown — if the public had been favorod with 
any reasons adequate to the steps taken, the 
case would have been different. The public in 
the plentitude of their patriotism, would have 
overlooked '-mistakes," or ''errors," or would 
even have excused hasty acts or false accusa- 
tions, if there had appeared any desiie to calm 
the popular fears, by assurances that these acts 
of despotic power had some foundation. But, 
no attempt at explanation has ever been offer- 
ed. Thousands who were thrown into prison, 
after months of suffering, in their persons, 
their property, and their reputations, were 
turned loose, without remuneration, without 
redress, and even without ever knowing the 
charges against them. And not only this, but 
the Radical Congress; in order to add insult to 
injury, passed that bold act of despotism, by 
which all officers, their aiders, abetors. spies 
and informers, were exonerated from trial and 
punishment. 

And not only this, but Mr. Lincoln, in his 
reply to the Albany and Ohio committees, in 
reference to the despotic arrest and deportation 
of Vallandigham, claimed the right to do 
these things, without being accountable to any 
power, save his own will and purpose. The 
doctrine asserted by the President in his reply 
to these committees is, that there is no limit to 
arbitrary power, save the ivill of the one who 
happens to be Commander-in-Chief. 
ME. Lincoln's claim of arbitrary power. 

We must be pardoned for the following co- 
pious extracts, for as covering the ;j/-«;i«>Z(j in- 
volved, they arc really of more consequence 
than any given number of special cases. 

THE VALLANDIGHAJI CASE — IN COURT AND 
OUT OF COURT. 

As the principles involved in this case cover 
the whole ground, and as the people have been 
so thoroughly aroused and excited on this 
subject, we will principally confine our quota- 
tions to this particular case. 

THE BURN SIDE OKDER No. 38. 

This will be our first witness on the stand, 
because we have good reasons for believing 
this order was issued expressly, and for no 
other purpose than to form an excuse to arrest 



and punish Mr. Vallandigham, so far as the 
latter clause is concerned. Certain it is, that 
we have heard of no other victim being ar- 
rested under this order, though hundreds of 
others said harsher things than Mr. Vallan- 
digham. This order reads as follows: 

" Headquarters Department of the Ohio, > 
Cincinnati, April 18(33. / 
" General Order No. 38. 

"The Commanding General publishes, for 
the information of all concerned — 

"That hereafter all persons found within 
our lines who commit acts for the benefit of 
the enemies of our country, will be tried as 
spies or traitors, and, if convicted, will suffer 
death. This order includes the following 
classes of persons: 

"Carriers of secret mails. 

"Writers of letters sent by secret mails. 

"Secret recruiting ofBces within the lines. 

"Persons who have entered into an agree- 
ment to pass our lines for the purpose of join- 
ing the enemy. 

"Persons found concealed within our lines 
belonging to the service ©f the enemy; and in 
fact all persons found improperly within our 
lines who com Wgive private information of the 
enemy. 

"All persons within our lines who harbor, 
protect, conceal, feed, clothe, or in any way 
aid the enemies of our country. 

"The habit of declaring sympathies for the 
enemy will no longer be tolerated in the de- 
partment. Persons committing such offences 
will be at once arrested, with a viev/- to being 
tried as above stated, or sent beyond our lines 
into the lines of their friends. 

"It must bo distinctly understood that trea- 
son, expressed or Implied, will not bo tolerated 
in this department. 

"All officers and soldiers are strictly charg- 
ed with the execution of this order. 

By commauU of Major General A. E. Burnside: 
LEWIS RICUMOM', 

Assistaut Ailjutnut Gaucral. 

AVhen it is knowTi that any criticism on the 
conduct of the Administration, however just 
and pertinent, was held by the radicals as 
"declaring sympathies for the enemy," we are 
enabled to read this order in its true meaning. 
Take what followed under this order, and com- 
pare it with the old, justly odious Seditiou 
law, and the reader will be astonished at the 
mildness of that law which hurled the Feder- 
als from power in 1801. \_Scc Sedition law on 
p. 36. 

SPIES SENT OUT. 

After issuing this order. General Burnsidb 
sent out a couple of spies to track and hunt 
down Mr. Vallandigham, who attended the 
Democratic meeting at Mount Vernon, Ohio, 
on the 1st of May, 1863, for the purpose of 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



193 



evesdropping — catching pa^ts of sentences, 
distorting others, and garbling the whole, 
with a view to make out a case. These spies 
reported at headquarters, and Mr. Vallan- 
DiQHAM -was arrested at 2 o'clock at night. 
His domicil at Dayton. Ohio, was surrounded 
by 100 soldiers, broken into and himself seized 
and carried by force to Cincinnati, and to give 
the full history of this transaction, we present, 

THE TRIAL OF C. L. VALLANDIGHAM. 

The Charg-^ ■tnd Specifications — Testimomj for the Pi-osecu- 
tion and Defense. — Protest of Mr. VaUandigham, dc. 

FIRST DAY. 

Wednesday, May 6, 1803. 

Tbo commission convened at 10 o'clock a. m. 

The Judge Advocate read the General Order from the 
headquarters ofthe Department of the Ohio, apjiointint; the 
foUowing officers a commission to try all pai-ties hroujjiht 
before it, and Mr. Tallaudigham was asked whetlier he had 
any objections to offer to any member of the court. 

The foliowinn officers compose the court: 

Brig. Gen. K. B. Potter, President. 

Capt. J.M. Cutis' Judge Advocate. 

Col. J. F. DecouRCEV, 16th 0. V. I. 

Lieut. Col. E. 11, Goodrich, Com. Sub. 

Major Vax Eurex, A. D. C. 

Major liROiVN, 10th Kentucky Cavalry. 

Major Fiicn, 11.5th 0. V, I. 

Capt. Lymg. a. D. C. 

Mr. Vallandigham said he was not acii'.iainted with any 
ofthe members ofthe court, and had no ulyection to offer 
to them individually, but he protested that the Commis-'sion 
had no authority to try him. he being aeithor in the land 
or naval foice of th& United States, and was not tlierefore 
triable by such a court, but was amenable only to thejudi- 
cial courts of the land. 

The members of his court were then sworn to try his 
case impartially. 

TheJudge Advocate tten read the following charge and 
specification: 

THE CHARGE. 

CAac^c— rPnbiicly expiessiog in violation of General Or- 
ders No. £S. from Ileadquartors Department of the Ohio, 
his symp.ities with those inarms agiinst the government 
of the United States, declaring disloyal sentiments and 
opinions, with the object and purpose of weakening the 
power of the govevumeutin its efforts to sujipress an un- 
lawful lebelliou. 

THE SPECIFICATION. 
Spccillcotirrn — In this, that the said Clement L. Vallan- 
digham, a citizen of the State of Ohio, on or about the 1st 
day of May, 1S63, at Mount A'crnon, Knox county, Ohio, 
did publicly address a meeting of citizens, and did utter 
sentiments in words, or in effect, as follows: Declaring the 
present war ft "wicked, cruel and unnecessary war," a war 
■'not beiiiK waged for the preservation of the Union," "a 
war for the purpose of crusliing outliberty, and erecting % 
despotism," "a war for the freeiloni of the blacks anil the 
enslaving -f the whites," stating "tiiat if tl:c admini.stra- 
tion had so wished, the war could have been honorably ter- 
minated months ago," that ''peace might have been hon- 
orbly abtained by listening to the proposed hitermediation 
of France:" 'that "propositions by which the Southern 
states coiiM be won back, and the south guaranteed their 
rights under the Constitution, had been rejected the day 
before the 'ate battle of Fredericksburg, by Ijincoln and his 
minions;" •■= meaning thereby the President of the United 
States arid those under him in authority; ch;irging that 
"the government of the United States were about to ap- 
point military marshals in every district to restrain the 
people of their liberties, to ileprivo thompf their righiS and 
privileges;" characterizing Gencal Order No. o8, from 
headquarters department of the Ohio; as "a base usurpa- 
tion of arbitrary authority," inviting his hearers to resist 
the same by saying, "The sooner the people inform the 

*The port-on enclosed in brocho'is w:ts struck out. 



minions of usurped power that tl ey will not submit to such 
restrictions upon their liberties thebe.ter;"declaringthat 
"he was at all times upon all occasions resolved to do what 
he could do to defeat the attempt now being made to baild 
up a monarchy upon the ruins of our free government;" 
asserting that "he firmly believed," as he said six months 
ago, "that the men in power are attempting to establish a 
despotism in this country more cruel and mote oppressive 
than ever existed before." 

All of which opinions and sentiments he well knew did 
aid, comfort and encourage those in arms against the g»v- 
eruRient, and could but induce in his hearers a distrust of 
their own government and sympathy for those in arms 
against it and a disposition to resist the laws ofthe laud. 
G. W. CUTTS, 

Captain 11th Infantry, Ji'dge Advocate, Depiirtment of 
the Ohio. 

Mr. Valliindigham was asked by the Judge Advocate, 
what his plea was. 

Mr. Vallandigham refnsed to plead, and asked time to 
consult his counsel, and for process to compel the attend- 
ance of Fernando Wood, of Now Yo'k city, who should be 
required to bring with him the letter wnich he received 
fro.Ti Richmond in relation to terms offered for the return 
of southern Senators to their .scats in Congress, with the 
letter of the President declining to entdtain the propo- 
sition. 

Mr. Vallandighan> continued to refuse to plead to the 
charge, the President directed that the plea of "not guil- 
ty," be entered on the record. 

The ecmrt then gave .Mr. Vallandigham time to con.suIt 
his counsel, and for tliat purpose ordered a recess to half 
past 1 o'clock. 

The court was then cleaied for deliberation, as (o wheth- 
er the delay asked for by Mr. Vallandigham should be 
granted, and remained closed until near noon. 

The court again met pursuant to adjournment, and the 
doors were opened. 

The president asked M •. Vallandigham wlieiher ho de- 
sired to appear with counsel. 

Mr. Vallandigham said ho did not. His counsel, Geo. 
E. Pugh, tJeo. Pendleton, and Alexander Ferguson, re- 
mained in the adjoining room. 

THE TJiSTlMONY. 

The Judge Advoc.ite announced that the case would be 
proceeded with, and called the first witness for the prose- 
cution . 

Capt. ir. R. H'll, of the lloth 0. V. I., who was sworn. 

(inestion by Judge Advocate — Were you present at a 
meeting of citizens of Mount Vernon, on M.ay 1st, 1S6-3? 

A. — 1 was. 

Q. — Did you hear accused address thai meteing? 

A.— I dill. 

Q. — Wiiat piisition did you occupy at the meeting, and 
were you near enough to hear all he said? 

A. — I was leaning against iiie end of the platform on 
wh'ch he was speaking. Was about six feet from him. I 
remained in this position during the whole time he was 
speaking. 

By Judge Advocate — State what remarks he made in re- 
lation to the war; what he said about the President ofthe 
United States and the orders of military commanders. 

AVitness— In order that I may bring in events as they 
were referred to by the speaker, I ask permission of the 
court to refresh my memory from the notes which I took 
at the time. 

President — You can i ead from your notes. 

Witness — The speaker cummenced by refe'-iing to the 
canopy under which he was speaking — the stand having 
been decorated with an Amei-ican flag — the flag under the 
Constitution- 
Witness— Afterfinishing li]3 e^o.dium, he snokeof the 
designs of those in power to erect a despotism.^ '^^^\ '' 
was not their intention to effect a rpstor:itio:i tf the Union 
That prcviou.s to the battle of Fredericksburg an attempt 
was made to stay this wicked, cruel and u!iQei:es->ary war. 
That the war could have been ended in February last. 
Tuat a day or two before the battle of Fredericksburg a 
proposition had been made for the re-admission of south- 
ern Senators into the United States Congress, and that the 
refusal was still in existence over the President's own sig- 
nature, which would be made pulic as soon as the ban of 
secrecy imposed by the President was removed. That the 
Union could have been saved if the plan proposed by the 
spe.akerhad been adopted; that the Union could have 
been saved upon the basis of reconstruction; but that it 



194 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



would have ended in the exile or death of those who ad- 
vocated a continuance of the war. He then referred to 
Forney, who was a well known correspondent of the Phil- 
adelphia /Vess, and said he had no right to speak for those 
who were not connected with the administration. That 
some of our public men, rather than hring back some of 
the seceded states would submit toaiiermauent separation 
of the Union. He stated that France, a nation that had 
always shown herself to be a friend of our government, 
had proposed to act as intermediator; but that her pi'opo- 
sition, which, if accepted, might have brought about an 
honorable peace, was insolently rejected. 

Mr, A'allandigham here corrected the witness. Tlie 
word he used was "instantly," not "insolently." 

■\Vitness...I understood the word he used to have been 
"insolently." That the people had been deceived — that 
20,000 lives had been lost at the battle of Frederickaburg, 
which might have been saved. In speaking of the ob- 
jects of the war, he said it was a war for the liberation 
of the blacks, and the enslavement of the whites. AVe 
had been told it would be terminated in three months — 
then in nine months — and again in a year. That the 
war was still in progress, and that there was no prospect 
of its being ended. That Richmond was theirs ; that 
Charleston and Yicksburg were theirs; that tlie Missis- 
sippi was not opened, and would not be so long as there 
was cotton on its banks to be stolen, or so long as there 
were any officers to enrich. That a southern paper had 
denounced him and Cox and the peace Democrats as hav- 
ing done more to prevent the establishing of the Southern 
Confederacy than 10,000 soldiers could do. That they 
proposed to operate through the masses of the people in 
both sections who were in favor ot the I'uion. That it 
was the purpose or desigu of the Administration to sup- 
press or prevent such meetings >as the one he was ad- 
dressing. [This very trial proved the truth of this.] That 
military marshals were about to be appointed in every 
district, who would act fjr the purpose of restricting the 
liberties of the people; [did not this prove true?] but 
that he was a freeman. That he did not ask David Tod, 
or Abraham Lincoln, or Ambrose E. Burnside for his 
right to speak as he had done, and was doing. That his 
authority for so doing was higher than General Order No. 
3S — it was General Order No. 1 — the Constitution. That 
General Order No. 38 was a base usurpation of arbitrary 
power — [a gi-eater truth no man ever uttered] — that he 
had the most supremo contempt for such power. He de- 
spised it and spit ujiou it. He trampled it under his feet. 

That only a few days before a man had been dragged 
from his home in Butler county by an outrageous usur- 
pation of power and tried for an offence not known to our 
laws by a self-constituted court martial ; tried without a 
jury, which is guaranteed to everj- one. ..that he had boon 
fined and imprisoned. That two men were brought over 
from Kentucky and tried, contrary to express laws for the 
trial of treason, and were now under sentence of death. 
That an order had j ust been issued in Indiana denying to per- 
sons the right to canvass or discuss military policy, and 
that if it was submitted to would be followed up by a 
similar order in Ohio. That he was resolved never to 
submit to an order of a military dictator, prohibiting the 
free discussion of either civil or military authority. The 
sooner that the people inform the minions of 
this usurped power that they would not sub- 
mit to such restrictions upon their liberties, and 
that they would not cringe and cower before such 
authority, the better. Let them not be deluded by the 
image of liberty when the spirit is gone. He proclaimed 
the right to criticise the acts of our military servants in 
power. That there never was a tyrant in any age who 
oppressed the people further than he thought they would 
submit to endure. That in the days of Democratic au- 
thority Tom Corwin had, in the face of Congress hoped 
that our brave volunteers ia Mexico "might be 
welcomed with bloody hands to hospitable 
graves," but that he had not been interfered 
with. It was never before thought necessary to 
appoint a Captain of cavalry as Provost Marshal as was 
now the case In Indianapolis, or military dictators as were 
now exercising authority in Cincinnati and Columbus. ... 
That a law bad recently lieen enacted in Ohio, as well as 
in some other states, regulating the manner in which sold- 
iers should vote, that the oflicers have to be judges of the 
election. 

Judge Advocate objected to this part of the testimony 
as irrelevant. 

Mr. Vallandigham desired the court to permit the wit- 
ness to go on with this testimonv. 



Witness. ..The speaker closed by warning the people not 
to be deceived. That an attempt would shortly be made 
to enforce the conscription law, and to remember that the 
war was not for the preservation of the Union, but that it 
was a wicked abolition war, and that if those in authority 
were allowed to accomplish their purposes, the people 
would be deprived of their liberties and a monarchy es- 
tablished; but, as for him, he was lesolved that he would 
never be a priest, to minister at the altar on which his 
country was being sacrificed. [Is this implied freason?] 

Question by J. A. ..What other flags or emblems were 
used in decorating the stage! 

A. ..There were banners made of frame-work, and cover- 
ed with canvass, which were decorated with butternuts, 
and bore inscriptions. One banner, which was carried at 
the head of a delegation which came iu from a town in the 
country, bore the inscription, "The copperheads are com- 
ing." 

Mr. "\ allandigham...The South never carried copper 
cents. 

[What greatness' for an administration to punish a man 
for speaking at a meeting where butternuts were worn!] 

Judge Advocate. ..But butternuts are a southsru em- 
blem. 

Mr. Vallandigham shook his head, and said they were 
not. 

Q. by J. A.. ..Did you see any persons have emblems on 
their persons? 

A. ..Yes, I saw hundreds of persons wearing butternut 
and copperhead badges. 

Mr. Vallandigham, ..The copper badges were simply the 
head cut out of the common cent coins with pins at- 
tached. 

Mr. Vall.andigham...Did you notice what inscription 
those copperhead badges bore? 

A. ..No, I did not lock at them. 

Mr. Vallandigham. ..The inscription on them was "Lib- 
erty?" 

Q. by J. A. ..Did vou hear any cheers in the crowd for 
Jeff. Davis? 

Mr. Vallandigham. ..That is not in the specification. 

A... I did not hear cheers for Jeff. Davis, but I heard a 
shout in the crowd that Jeff. Davis was a gentleman, and 
that was more than the President was. [Did Mr. V. com- 
mit treason by proxy?] 

CROSS-ISAMINATION ET MR. VALLAXDIOHAM. 

Q. — Did not I refer in my speech to the Crittenden com- 
promise propositiou.s, and condemn their rejection? 

As the witness was about answering the Judge Advocate 
objected to the question on the ground that it was bringing 
in a matter foreign to the charge and specification. The 
court allowed the question to be answered. 

A. — When endeavoring to show that the party in power 
had not the restoration of the Union in view iu conducting 
the war, and that tkat was not their object, he stated a 
number of means by which that could have been accom- 
plished, and, from the fact that none had been adopted,he 
considered it proof that that the restoration of tho Union 
was not the object for which the war was being waged. 

Q. — Did I not quote Judge Douglas' declaration that tho 
rejection — 

Mr. Vallandigham.— I desire to prove that in my speech 
I stated that Mr. Douglas had said that the responsibility 
for the rejection of the Crittenden propositions was with 
the republican party. 

The Judge Advocate stated that his objection was that 
the question was bringing in political opinions andiUscus- 
sions with which the court had nothing to do. 

The room was cleared for deliberation, aad the doors 
closed. 

After an interval of fifteen minutes the doors were 
again opened, and then the Judge Advocate annouced, 
that the question would not be admitted. 

Ci...When speaking in connection with Forney's Press, 
did I not say that if other democrats in Washington ancl 
myself had not refused all idea and suggestions of somo 
prominent men of the party in power, to make peace on 
terms of disunion, that I believed the war would have 
been ended in February? 

A...'\Vhen speaking of the propositions before referred 
to, and that this war was not being carried on for the res- 
toration of the Union, he stated that if the Democrats in 
Washington had united in influence for the i)ermanent 
separation of the Union, it would have been accomplished 
in February. 

Q...Did I not refer expressly to myself in that connect- 
ion, and say that I had refused and always would refuse, 



SCRAPS FEOM :SIY SCRAP-BOOK. 



195 



to agree to a separation of the states, in other words, to 
peace on terms of disunion? 

A. ..Well, that idea is not exactly as it was expre.«sed.— 
lie stated someUdvy to that effect. That he wished to have 
a voice iu the manner in which the Union was to be re- 
constructed, and that onr southern brethren should also 
have a voice in the matter. 

Q... Referring to the Kichmond Enquirer article, did I 
not say that it, Jeff. Davis', organ, had called Dictator 
Lincoln to lock up Mr. Cox, Senator Richardson and my- 
Belf in oneof his military prisons, because of our doing 
so much against southern recognition and independence? 
A. ..That issuhstanliallywhat he said. 
Q... Referring to General Order No. 38, did I not say that 
in 80 far as it undertook to subject citizens not in the land 
or naval forces of the United States, or militia of the Uni- 
ted States in actual service, to trial by court martial or 
military commission, I believed to be unconstitutional and 
a usurpation of arbitrary power? 
A. ..Yes, except in the words "in so far." 
Q... Referring to two citizens of Kentucky tried by mil- 
itary court in Ciucinunti, did I not say that if what they 
■were charged with was actual treason, punishable by 
death, and that if guilty the penalty by state law which was 
hanging, that they ought to be hung, after being tried bj' 
a judicial court and a jury, instead of which they had 
been tried by a military court, and, as I understood, sen- 
tenced to a fine and imprisonment — one of them §.300 fine? 
A...I don't think he put those "if s" in. I^think he said 
they were improperly tried, and by ausurpation of power. 
Mr. Yallandigham... Strike out the "if's" then. 
Witness. ..That was substantially what he said. * 

Q....Did I not say, in that connection, that the rebel of- 
ficer who was tried as a spy by the military court at Cin- 
cinnati, was legally and properly tried, according to the 
rules and articles; tried and convicted — that that was a 
clear case, where the court Iiad jurisdiction? 

A. ..It is my recollection that he denounced the court as 
an unlawful tribunal, and did not make the distinction. 

Q. by Judge Advocate. ..Didho refer to thecase of Camp- 
bell, the rebel spy, and make any distinction? 

A. ...No. He denounced the court first, and then gave 
the instances, which I have already related in my direct 
testimony. 

Q. by Vallandigb.am...Doyou not remember my speak- 
ing of the Campbell case, and saying that he was proper- 
ly tried? 

A. ..He may, but I do not recollect it. He probably did 
refer to the Campbell case. 

Q...May I not have made the distinction and you not 
have heard it? 

The Judge Advocate said he would admit that the ac- 
cused did draw the distinction between the cases, and that 
he admitted the right of the court to try the spy. In 
other words, that he condemned the trial of the Butler 
county man, and ajjproved the case of the spy who was 
tried and convicted. 

Q....Did I not distinctly, in the conclusion of the speech, 
enjoin upon the people to stand by the Union at all events 
and that, if war failed, not to give up the Union, but to 
try by peacable means, by cumpromise, to restore it as 
Gur fathers made it, and that, though otliers might con- 
sent, or be forced to consent, I would not myself be oneof 
those who would take any part in agreeing to a dissolution 
of the Union? 

A. ..Yes. He said that he and the peace men were the 
only ones who wished the restoration of the Union. 

Q...Did not one of the banners you refer to as decor.ated 
with butternuts bear the inscription, "The Constitution as 
it is and the Union as it wa.s"? 

A. ..The banners were numerous. One of them, I be- 
lieve, did bear that inscription. 

Q...Do you mean to be understeod to say that I heard the 
reference to Jeff. Davis iu the crowd or gave any assent to 
it whatever? 

_&....! cannot say that he did. Did not see or hear him 
give any assent to it. There wore many other remarks of 
that character uttered. 
Q...What was the size of the crowd assembled there? 
A. ..I did not know the proper estimate but the crowd 
was very large. 

The Court then adjourned to Thursday morning at 10 
o'clock. 

SECOND DAY. 

Thecourt met at lOo'clock, A. >I. Present as before. 
Yesterday's proceedings and testimony were read and ap- 
proved, and were signed by the President. 



Capt. Hill was again called to the stand, and his cross 
examination was resumed by Mr. Vallaudigham. 

U-.-Iu speaking of the character of the war, did I BOt 
expressly Bay as Mr. Lincoln in his proclamation, July 1st, 
lb02, said, 'This unnecessjiry and injurious civil war?" 

Judge Advocate. ..So, Mr. Vallandighani, was that used 
in your speech as a ijuotatiou from the Pretident's procla- 
mation ? 

Mr. Yallandigham. ..Yes, it was. 

Witness...! do nut recollect that he did. The language 
he made use of I understood to be his own. 

Mr. A'allandigham...Of course I could not i)ut the quo- 
tation marks in my speecli . 

I So that no speaker must repeat Mr. Lincoln's jukes or 
aphorisms, unless he puts in the ([uotation marks.] 

Q... Again, inspeakingof the character of the war, didi 
not expressly give as proof the President's proclamation of 
September 22, 1SG2, and January 1, 1803, declaring the 
emancipation of the slaves in the southern seceded states, 
as proof that the war was being waged for that purjjose? 
The witness was about to answer, when the Judge Ad- 
vocate cheeked him. He said it was bringing matters 
which were foreign to the charge and specilication, and 
that the court was not called upon to pass upon the mer- 
its of the President's proclamation . He then desired that 
the court should be closed for deliberation. 

Mr. Yallandigham...! desire to show this fact, in expla- 
nation of the purpose and object of my declaration as to 
the present character of the war, and as my authority for 
tho statement, for 1 assume that the President is not dis- 
loyal. 

The Judge Advocate insisted that the question required 
the cour t to pass judgment upon the merits of the Presi- 
dent's proclamation, and not whether he (Mr. V.) was ex- 
pressing his own sentiments or those of the President. 

The Judge Advocate said tho question would not be ad- 
mitted. 

Q...Did you continue at the same place dniing tho de- 
livery of the whole speech? 
A...! did. 

Q...Were your notes taken at the time or reduced to 
writing afterward? 

A. ..They were taken at the time, and as they fell from 
the speaker's lips. 

Q...AVere you not in citizen's clothes; and how came 
you to be at Mount Yernon that day? Did you go to Mount 
Yernon for the purpose of taking notes and reporting tho 
speech? 

Judge Advocate...! object to this question, on the ground 
of its immateriality. 

Mr. YallancUgham insisted on the question, on the ground 
that it explained the temper and spirit of the witness, and 
his prejudices, and as showing that the notes were taken 
with reference to the arrest and prosecution before this 
Commission, he being a Captain iu the service, and his 
regiment at Cincinnati. 

The question was objected to by the Judge Advocate, 
and tho court was cleaned for deliberation. 

On opening the doors again, the Judge Advocate an- 
nounced that the question would be allowed. 

A...I was in citizen's clothes, and I tvent vp for the 
purpose of listeniny to any sjieech that might le delivered 
by him. [A self- convicted spy.] I had no order to take 
notes or report. 
Q....Did you go provided with pencil and paper? 
The Judge Advocate objected to the question. Of course 
the witness had pencil and paper. 
Q...Did you take notes of any other speech? 
.4. ...I commenced taking notes of Mr. Cox's speech, but 
considered it harmless, and stopped . I took no notes of 
any other speech. 
Q...Were you not sent expressly to listen to my speech? 
A....I was not any more than any other speech. 
Q...By whom were you sent or requesteil to go? 
A....By Capt. Andi-ew C. Kemper, Assistant Adjutant 
General of the military commandant of the city. 
(i....From whom did yon obtain leave of absence? 
Judge Advocate. ..He did not need any leave of absence; 
tlie order was enough. 

Mr. Yallandigham. ..Then stiike out the words "or re- 
quested" from the answer for it leaves it ambiguous. 

Q... Did you make report to Capt. Kemper on your re- 
turn? 

The Judge Advocate objected to tho question, but the 
court allowed it. 
A. ..On my return !did not report to Kemper. 
Q...To whom did you report? 

A. ..To Col. Eastman himself, and he sent me to head- 
quarters Department of tho Ohio. 



196 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



This closod tlie testimony of Capt. Hill on both the 
direct and cross examination. 

The Judge Advocate called 

Capt. John A. Means, 115th 0. V. I., who was sworn. 
ITo was asked by the Judge Advocate if he was at the 
Mount Ternon meeting, and whether he heard Mr. Val- 
landigham speak, and, if so, what ho said of the war, &c. 

AVitness...! was present at the meeting, and heard Mr. 
Vallandigham address the people. I was in two or three 
positions most of the time, and about five or ten feet 
from the stand. I heard the whole speech. 

By the Judge Advocate. ..State what remarks you heard 
him make, and give us, as near as you can, his language. 

AV"itness...He stated that the war was not carried on for 
the restoration of the Union, and that it might have been 
stopped some time ago, and the Union restored, if the 
Ijlans which had been submitted had bean accepted. 

Mr. Vallandighain objected to this testimony, on llie 
ground that he had ajiplied for a siibpcona to compel the 
attendance of Fernando Wood, who would produce the 
written evidence of what he (Mr. V.) had asserted about 
the return of Southern Senators to their seats in Con- 
gress. 

Judge Advocate...! will strike from the specification 
that part which refers to the propositions by which the 
Southern States could be won back, Ac. 

To the AVitnes3...You will omit that part of your lesti- 
mony. 

■\Titne33 continued. "If the plans he had pi-oposed 
himself had been adopted, peace would h.ave been restor- 
ed, the Union saved by a reconstruction, the North won 
back, and the South guaranteed her rights. That Ilich- 
mond, Charleston, and Ticksburg had not been taken, 
and the Mississippi was not opened, and could not bo as 
long as there was cotton on the banks to be stolen or oilic- 
ers enriched. He said that after the rebuke which tlie 
administration received at the last fall election, no mo.'e 
volunteers could be had, and the Administration had to 
resort to the French conscription law. But he would not 
counsel resistance to military or civil law. That was not 
needed. The people were not deserving to be free men 
who would submit to such encreachments on their liber- 
ties. 

Mr. Vallandigham. ..What was I referring to, when I 
made the remarks you say I did ? 

Witness... He was speaking of tiie conscription act.... 
He said he believed that the Administration was attempt- 
ing to erect a despotism, and in less than one mouth . Mr. 
Lincoln had plunged the country in this cruel, bloody, 
and unnecessary war. lie stated that General firder No. 
38 was a usurpation of power that lie despised. ..ho spit 
upon it and trampled it under his feet. That he for one 
would not regard it. He styled the officers of the admin- 
istration and officers of the army as Lincoln minions.... 
He said he did not ask Lincoln or lUirnside whether he 
might speak; that he was a free man and spoke as he 
pleased. He stated the military orders and proclamations 
were intended to intimidate the people and prevent them 
from meeting as they had done that day. He claimed the 
right to discuss and criticise the actions of civil and mili- 
tary authorities. 

Q...D'd ho advise the people to take any stops to obtain 
their rights? 

A. ..At the close of his speech he advised the people to 
come up together, and at the ballot-box to hurl the tyrant 
from his throne. In one part of his speech he styled the 
President as King Lincoln. 

Cr.OSS-EXAJIINATIOX I!Y MB. V.^LLANWOIIAM. 

Q...Did you take any notes at all during delivery of the 
speech, or are you testifying solely fmm memory? 

A. ..I took no minutesduriug the delivery of the speech. 
After Pendleton commenced speaking, I went and wrote out 
what I heard. It was perhaps an hour and a half after I 
heard the speech. 

Q... A bout what was the length of the speech? 

A. ..I think about an hour and a half. 

Q...Y0U made no short-hand report of it I suppose. Did 
you ever report in short hand? 

Judge Advocate. ..The witness has already said ho made 
no report of the speech. 

Mr. Vallandigham wanted to know if he was accustomed 
to reporting speeches. 

The Judge Advocate objected to the question. 

Q...YOU speak of my saying the North might be won 
back — was it not the South might be won back? Mr. 



Vallandigham said he noticed that the witness used the 
word "North" in place of the "South." It was the South 
he referred to. 

— ...No. I noticed Ibis particularly. It siruck mevery 
forciWy. 

Q...YOU say that I said that I would not counsel resist, 
ance to military or civil law. Did not I expressly counsel 
the people to obey the constitution aad the laws and to pay 
proper respect to men in authority, but to maintain their 
political rights through the ballot-box, and to redress per- 
sonal wrongs through the judicial tribunals of the country 
!ind in that way to rebuke and put down administrations 
and all usurpations of power. 

A. ..Not in that connection. He said, at the last of his 
speech, to come up to the ballot-box and hurl the tyrant 
from power. 

li...Do you recollect the whole connection in which the 
sentence was used? 

A... I did not understand him to advise submission at all 
times. 

Q...Do you recollect the sum aud substance of what I 
said? 

' A... I remember part of it, but I cannot remember the 
language or substance so as to answer the question. 

li...Did I not say that my authority to speak to the peo- 
ple in public assemblages on all public quest ions was not 
derived from General Order No.. 38, but from General Or- 
der No. 1— the Constitution of the United States, George 
Washington commanding? 

A... I understood him to say that his authority to speak 
to the people was higher than General Order No. 38, by 
tliat military desjiot, 15urnside. It was Order No. 1, signed 
Washington. I did not hear him say "Constitution." 

Q...Were not the names of Tod, Lincoln and Burnside 
used in the same connection, and that I did^not ask their 
consent to speak? 

A. ..At another time he did use these words. 

Q...Wero not the remarks you say I i;iade about des- 
pising, spitting and trampling under foot, e.xpressly ap- 
plied in reference to arbitrary power gener.illy, and did I 
nut in that connection refer to General Order iS'o. 9 of In- 
diana, signed by General Hascall, denyin;^ the right to 
criticise the war policy of the Administration? 

A. ..The remarks in regard to despising and spitting 
upon were in direct reference to Order No. 3S. Some time 
afterwards, in speaking of the tyranny of the administra- 
tion, ho did refer to Order No. 9. and of the right to criti- 
cise the acts o f the Administration, and saiil that, if sub- 
mitted to, it would be followed by civil war in Ohio. 

Q...Did I approve or condemn the order? 

Judge Advocate. ..The question, I think, has been al- 
ready answered. 

Q...Will you undertake to give any connected or me- 
thodical statement of my speech of ove;- one hour and ;i 
half long? 

A...lsimply remember parts of it. I do not p;etend to 
give the siteech just as he spoke it. 

Q...Were you not present in citizen's clotiics, and how 
came you at Mount Vernon that day, by whoso order, and 
were you sent for the purpose of listening to and report- 
ing the speech? 

A...I was there in citizen's clothes by oouer of Colonel 
Eastman. / was sent to listen to the spcecit .and to give my 
careful attention and get his language as near as I could. 

Q...Did you makt such a report? 

A...I did; to Col. Eastman. 

Q...Did you make report of any o^hor speeches on that 
occasion? 

A... I did. I got tho substance of Cox and Eanney's 
speeches. 

Q... Were you directed to go to Mount Vernon and make 
a report of my speech, with reference to the prosecution 
uuder General Order No. 38. 

A....I was not. 

Q...Wero any reasons given you why you should go? 

The Judge Advocate objected to the question, as the an- 
swer had been snlBcieutly given before. 

Q...Was any object stateii to you, and if so what, for 
your going there in citizen's clothes, listening to, and re- 
porting the speech? 

A. ..There was not any. 

The cross-examination hei'e closed, and tho Judge Advo- 
cate stated that he did not propose to introduce any furth- 
er testimony on the part of the prosecution. 

Mr. Vallandigham asked for a few miinUes to consult 
with his counsel, which was gi anted, and the court took a 
recess of fifteen minutes. 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



197 



THE DEFENCE. 

On the re-agserablfng of tbe court Mr. VaUandigham 
called Hon. S. S. Cox, who was sworn. He was exam- 
ined by Jlr. Vallandighani. 

Q...'\Vc're you present at a pubiic political meeting of 
citizens of Ohio, at Blount Yernou, on Friday, May 1st, 
186-3, ncd if so, in what capacity? 
A. ..I was present as one of the gpeakcis. 
Q... Did you hear the .speech of Mr. Vallaudigiipni on 
that dav made to the assemblage? 
A...Idid. 

Q... State where your position was during its de'ive'-'v; 
what your opportunities for hearing were; whetlier you 
heard "it all; and whetlier and why your attention was 
particularly liirected to it? 

A...Defoi"e the speaking began I was on (he stand, a 
few feet from Mr. Vallandigham,aud was most of the time 
standing near him, so that I could not fail to hear all that 
Le said . I do not think my attention was distracted 
unless for a few minutes during the whole speech. I had 
not heard Mr. Tallaudigham speak since the adjournment 
of Congress, and as I came in from a different direction 
from the West, I did not know that he was to be there. I 
took an esjiecial interest in listening to his speech through- 
out. Having to follow him, I naturally noted the topics 
which he discussed. I believe that answers the question. 
Q...Did you hear any allusions to Gen. Burnside, by 
name or description, and if so, what were they? 

A. ..The only allusion that he made to the General was, 
I think, near the beginning of his speech, in which he 
said he was not there by the favor of David Tod, or 
Abraham Lincoln, or Ambrose E. Burnside. 
Q...AVere any epithets applied to him during the speech? 
A. ..No, sir. If there had been, I should have noticed 
them, because Gen. Burnside was an old friend of mine. 
I should have remembered any odious epithets applied to 
him. 

Q...Did you hear the reference to General Order No. 38, 
and, if so, what was it? 

A...Tlie only reference made in that speech to that Or- 
der was something to this effect: that he did not recognize 
(I do not know that I can quote his language) Order No. 
38 as superior to General Order No. 1, of the Constitu- 
tion, from George 'Washington, commanding. It was 
something to that effect. I thought at the time that it 
was a handsome point. I remembered that, because Mr. 
Vallandigham used the same expression in the debate in 
Congress on the conscription bill, or in some debate, 
somewhere else, when I heard him speak. 

Q Were any violent ejjithets, such as spitting upon, 

trampling under foot, or the like, used at any time in the 
speech, in reference to that Order No. 38; and if any crit- 
icism was made upon it, what was that criticism ? 

A....I cannot recall any denunciatory epithets applied to 
that order, I did not hear them, and if I had I should 
have remembered them. The criticism upon the order 
was made as I have stated before. 
Q....In what connection did I use the strong language? 
A. ...Mr. Vallandigham discussed the order very briefly, 
in order to get away on the four o'clock train, and occu- 
pied most of his time in discussing other propositions 

It was in connection with remarks about closing the war 
by separation of the Union. He charged that the men in 
power had the power to make peace by separation. He 
exhausted some time in reading proofs of this ; one was 
from Montgomery Blair and another from Forney's Press. 
He also said there were private proofs which time would 
disclose. He said they pursued this tiling until they 
fuund th.T,t the Democrats were unwilling to make any 
peace except on the basis of the restoration of the whole 
Union. 

Q...DO you remember to what, if at all, in connection 
with future usuj-pations of power he applied his strongest 
languai;e? 

A...I cranot say as to 11:6 strongest language, for he al- 
ways spoke pretty strongly. He denounced in strong lan- 
guage any usurpations of power to stop ijublic discussions 
and the sufi'rage. He appealed to the people to protect 
their rights, us the remedy for every grievance. Twice in 
his speech he counseled and warned against violence or 
revolution. By the peaceful means of the ballot-box, all 
that was wrong of a public nature might be remedied and 
that the courts would remedy all grievances of a private 
nature. I cannot quote the langTiage, but that is the sub- 
stance. 

During his speech he referred to those in power having 
rightful authority, and that they should be obeyed. Ho 



counseled no resistance except what could be bud at the 
ballot-bo.t. 

Q... Was anything said by meat all looking t . vucible 
resistance of either law or military orders? 

A. ..Not as I understand it. 

Q...What was the sole remedy that I urged upon the 
people? 

A. ..The sole n-medy -was, as I have staied, in ihe courts 
and in the ballot-box. 1 remember this distinctly, be- 
cause I had been pursuing the same line of i-emark at 
Chicago and Fort Wayne and other places where I had 
been speaking, and for the purijose of repressing any ten- 
dency toward violence among our democratic people. 

Q...Was anything said by me on I hat occHsiun in denun- 
ciation of the couscription bill or looking in any way to re- 
sistance toil? 

A. ..My best '-ecollection is that Mr. Vallandigham did 
i>ot say a word about it. 

Mr. Vallandigham. ..Not one word. 

Q...DidI refer to the French conscrip^'oj law, and if 
not, by whom was reference made to it? 

A. ..He did not. I did in this connection. 

The Judge Advocate objected to what Mi-. Cox had gaid 
as not being competent evidence. 

Mr. Cox desired to say to the Court, in exp'auation of 
what he said about the Conscription law, that he had just 
befoie the meeting been talking with Judge Bartley about 
tbe Conscription; law having been copied from the French 
law, and I merely referred to that in my speech. 

Q...Doyou lomember my quoting from President Lin- 
coln's proclamation of July Ist, lSt)2. the words '-unnec- 
essary and iajm-ious war." 

A...I do not. He may have done so, but I did not 
hear it. 

Q...Did you hear similar language used by me? 

A... I cannot recollect it. 

Q...Do you remember my comments on the change of the 
policy of the war some year or so after its commencement, 
and what reference was made by me in that connection? 

A. ..He did refer to the change in the policy of the war, 
and I think devoted some time to show that it war carried 
on for the abolition ol slavery, and not for the restoration 
of the Union. 

Q...What did he claim to have been its original purpose, 
and did he ref^r to anj' measure or proclamatioa of the 
President in that connection? 

A. ..He referred in that defense to the Crittendep propo- 
sition, declaring the war was for the restoration of the 
Union, and not to break up the States. 

Q...Did I counsel any other mode in that speech, of re- 
sisting usurpations of arbitrary power, except by free dis- 
cussion and the ballot-box? 

A. ..He did not. 

Mr. Vallandigham. ..As I understand thatportiou of the 
specification which relates to the proposition fi-om Kichmond 
has been stricken out, I will ask no questions about it. 

Q...Were any denunciations of the officers of the army 
indulged in by me, or any offensive eijithets applied to 
them? 

A. ..Well, occasionally, Mr. Vallandigham used the word 
"The President and his minions," but I did not think he 
used it in any other than the general acceptation of that 
term. lie did not use it in connection with the army. 

Mr. Vallandigham...! did not use it in connection with 
the officers of the army. 

Mr. Cox. ..It was in conuection with arbitrary arrests 
perhaps, that he used it . 

Q...Was it not in connection with army contractors and 
speculators? 

The Judge Advocate objected to the question and said 
the witness had distinctly stated that he did not think Mr 
V. had applied it to the officers of the army. 

Q...D0I understand you to say that the denunciations to 
which you refer, were chiefly in reference to arbitrarj' ar- 
rests? 

A. ..My recollection is that that was the connection in 
which it was used. He used sirong epithets towards spies 
and informers, and did not seem to like them very much. 
Mr. Vallandigham... As the court has admitted that I 
did make a distinction between tlie Butler county case and 
the Kentucky spy, I will not refer to it now. 

Q...D0 you remember the connection in which words to 
this effect were used at the close of the speech: "In re- 
gard to the possibility of a dissolution of the Union," and 
of his own determination in regard to such a contingency, 
and his "declining to act as a priest?" 

A. ..I cannot give the exact words, but I remember the 
metaphor, "that he would not be a priest to minister at the 



198 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



altar of disuniun." It was as, he wouml up Ijisspe"- 'i. 
lie was speukiiif; about disunion and Liia attacliment to 
the Union. 

Q...What counsel did I give the people on th" inbject of 
the Union at the close of my speech? 

A. ..lie invoked them under no circumstances to surren- 
der the Union. I think he said something about leaving 
it to our posterity. 

Q...Do you remember my rebuke of arliitrary court mar- 
tiala, and was it in connection with the Butler county case? 

A. ..Yes; I so understood it. 

Q...What was the general character of my remarks on 
that subject? 

A. ..He denounced the applause of Jeff . Davis by that 
party, and said there was a mode by which this man could 
be tried. 

Mr. Vallandigham asked whether the rebuke had not 
reference to. and was spoken in connection witli the But- 
ler county case. lie desired a distinct answer ts this. 

Mr. Cox. ..He was speaking of the Butler county case, 
and he pointed out a mode by which such a man could be 
tried. 

Q... Was anything said in my speech in reference to tlie 
war, except in condemnation of what X claimed to bo the 
policy upon which it was now being waged, and as a policy 
which I insisted could not restore the Union, but must 
end finally in disunion? 

A... I can only give my nnderstanding. I do not know 
what inference other people might draw from it. I un- 
derstood his condemnation of the war to be launched at 
the perversion of its original purpose. 

Mr. Vallandigham...! do not remember anything fur- 
ther just now. I have some other witnesses whom I de- 
sire to examine on this point, who ai-e not yet here. 

Judge Advocate...! have no questions to put to the 
witness. 

To Mr. A'allandigham...IIas not this witness sufficiently 
developed the purpose and spirit of your speech? 

Mr. Vallandigham...! have called but one witness, and 
I understand the court has several more to corroberatu 
what their first witness has testified. 

Judge Advocate. ..The court will not be intiuenced by 
the number of witnesses. The number has nothing to do 
with the case. 

Mr. Vallandigham...! didnot counsel any resistance in 
my speech, and there were three \>itnesses on the stand, 
one of whom was the presiding officer and one a reporter, 
who is accustomed to reporting speeches, though he diil 
not report on that occasion, whom I have telegraphed for 
and expect here at 4 p. m. 

The Judge Advocate suggested that Mr. Pendleton, who 
was now present, was at the meeting at Mount Vernon, 
and that he might be called to the stand. 

Mr. Vallandiiibam...Mr. Pendleton has been engaged in 
this case, and I would prefer not to call him, as I have 
other witnesses. I also desire to show that the criticisms 
in my speech were not in reference to General Order No. 
38. 

Judge Advocate. ..The witness has just said so. 

Mr. Vallandigham. ..If the court will admit that, then I 
will not call otlier witnesses. 

Judge Advocate...! will admit that the language might 
not have been used, especially toward General Order No. 
38, but it had been proved that such language was used 
in the Mount Yernon speeches, in reference to military 
orders . 

Mr. Vallandigham...! want to prove that it was not 
used in relation to General Order No. 38. 

Judge Advocate...! will admit that the language was 
not used in regard to General Order No. 38, but generally 
to military orders. 

Mr. Vallandigham said he desired time to prepare a de- 
fence covering this testimony, and would, according to 
the rules governing court martials, submit it in writing. 

The Judge Advocate said he might cover 100 or 2U0 
pages of foolscap in reviewing the case, but this would take 
time. He (the Judge Advocate) did not propose to say 
anything on the evidence, but would leave it with the 
Court. Mr. Vallandigham might say what he desired in 
defence verbally, and it could be reported in short hand, 
and thus save time. 

Mr. A'allandigham preferred to have the record correct, 
as it would have to go before another tribunal. 

The Court then took a recess to half past four o'clock. 

The Court reconvened at five o'clock. P.M. 

The Judge Advocate stated that the witnesses for the 
censed, who were expected, namely, Lickey Harper, J. F. 
F. Irwin and Frank U. Ilurd, had not arrived, and that 



he had agreed with the accused to admit, as it would avoid 
a continu.ance, that if they were present and under oath, 
they would testify substantially the same as Mr. Cox had 
done. 

Thereupon Mr. Vallandigham said he had no more testi- 
mony to ofler, and the case closed . 

The Judge Advocate now announced that the testimony 
was all in. 

At the request of Mr. Vallandigham, the testimony of 
Mi-. Cox was read over. 

Mr. Vallandigham. ..Gentlemen of the Court, very briefly 
and respectfully I offer the following protest : 

MR. VALLANDIGHAM' S PROTEST. 

Arrested withont due "process of law," mthout war- 
rant from auyjucUcial officer, and now, in a military pris- 
on, I have been served with a "charge and specifications," 
as in a court martial or military commission. 

I am not in either "the land or naval forces of the Uni- 
ted States, nor in the militia in the actual service of the 
United States," and therefore am not triable for any cause 
by any such court, but am subject, by the express terms of 
the Constitution, to arrest only by due process of law, ju- 
dicial warrant, regularly issued upon affidavit and by some 
officer or court of competent jurisdiction for the trial of 
citizens, and am now entitled to be tried on an indictment 
r presentment of a Grand Jury of such court, to a speedy 
and public trial by an impartial jury of the state of Ohio, 
to be conlronted with witnesses against me, to have com- 
pulsory process for witnesses in my behalf, the assistance 
of counsel for my defence, and evidence and argument ac- 
cording to the common law and the ways of judicial 
courts. 

And all of these I here demand as my right as a citizen of 
of the United States, and under the Constitution of the 
United States. 

But the alleged "offence" itself is not known to the Con- 
stitution of the United States, nor to any law thereof. It 
is words sjioken to the people of Ohio in an open and pub- 
lic political meeting, lawfully and peaceably assembled un- 
der the Constitution and upon full notice. It is words of 
criticism of the public policy of the public servants of the 
people, by which policy it was alledged that the welfare of ' 
the country was not promoted. It was an appeal to the 
people to change that policy, not by force, but by free 
elections and the ballot-box. It is not pretended that I 
counseled disobedience to the Constitution or resistance to 
laws and lawful authority. I never have. Beyond this 
protest I have nothing furrher to submit. 

C. L. VALLANDIGHAM. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, May 7, 1803. 

FINDING AND SENTEXCE. 

The Commission, after mature deliberation en the evi- 
dence adduced and the statement of the accused, find the 
accused Clement L. Vallandigham, a citizen of the State 
of Ohio, as follows: 

Of the specification except the words: "That preposi- 
tions by which the northern states could be won back, and 
the South guaranteed their rights under the constitution 
had been rejected the day before the last battle of Fred- 
ericksburg, by Lincoln and his minions," — meaning, 
thereby, the President of the United States, and those un- 
der him in authority; and the words, "asserting that he 
had firmly believed, as he asserted si.x months ago, that 
the men in power are attempting to establish a despotism 
in this country, more cruel and more oppressive than ever 
existed before" "Guilty." 

And as to these words, "Not guilty. '' 

Of the charge "Guilty." 

And the commission do therefore sentence him, the 
said Clement L. A'allandigham, a citizen of the State of 
Ohio, to be placed in close confinement in some fortress of 
the United States, to bo designated by the commanding 
officer of this department, there to be kept during the 
continuance of the war. 

II. The proceedings, finding, and sentence in the fore- 
going case are approved and confirmed, and it is directed 
that the place of confinement of the prisoner, Clement L. 
A'allandigiiam, in accordance witli the said sentence, be 
Fort A\'arren, Boston Harbor. 

By command of Major General Buknside. 

LEWIS RICHMOND, 
Assistant Adjutant General. 

Here is the finding and the sentence. We 

place them on record, so that all posterity miy 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



199 



Bee Just what Mr. V. was adjudged guilty of ; 
that is, 1st : for saying that Lincoln and his 
minions (meaning the president and those ac- 
ting under him in the character of spies, &c.) 
had prevented Union by rejecting certain prop- 
ositions for peace, &c. (This was stricken out, 
rather than expose Wood's testimony) 2d, the 
uttering the belief that those in power were at- 
tempting to establish a Despotism. (Did not 
this very trial furnish the proof of this ?) If 
this be treason, then traitors may be counted 
by the millions. The writer hereof, it is but 
proper to remark, has ever opposed Mr. Vs 
peculiar peace views, as both premature and 
useless, yet, he believes the means used to put 
down that gentleman, while Conway andhim- 
dreds of other republicans, who have directly 
advocated dissolution, and committed well-de 
fined acts of treason, without so much as a gen- 
tle rebuke from official quarters, is not only a 
gross outrage, but is intensifying the sting of 
despotism by an unmistakable display of polit- 
ical partiality. 

We have not the patience to comment on 
such a trial, and the punishmejat inflicted on 
such charges, and such proofs, to say nothing 
of the spy system, through the criminal f;irce 
as inaugurated. 

" Suspect ! that's a Spie's office ! — Byron 

"Rather confiile, and be deceivecl, 
A thousand times, by treacherous foes, 

Than once accuse the innocent, 
Or, let suspicion mar repose." — Mrs. Osgood. 

It would puzzle the most astute and patriotic 
man that ever lived, to pick out a sentence ut- 
tered by Mr. V., on the occasion, and distort 
it to mean anything like treason against the 
Government — or anything the half so disloyal 
as the hundreds of extracts from republican 
speeches, in the preceding pages of this work. 
One of the main charges against Mr. V. it seems, 
was the repetition of a phrase used by Mr. Lin- 
coln in his proclamation of July,'62. To punish 
citizens for repeating expressions used by him 
who applies the punishment, in the language 
of Edward Livingston, in 1798, is " a refine- 
ment on despotism." 

As we have given our opinion that Order 38 
was issued expressly to reach Vallandig- 
HAM, so we record our belief that he was vir- 
tually sentenced before he was tried. This 
would not be without a precedent, for the bl®ody 
annals of i/O! /"orce and other Bastiles during 
the Reigr of Terror in France, teach us that 
the following order was often observed : 



1st. Suspicion. 

2d. Dig the grave. 

yd. Procure the coffin. 

4th. Arrest of the suspected. 

5th. A five minutes trial. 

6th. Sentence of death . 

7th. Execution. 

8th. Use of the coffin and the grave. 

The forma of ti'ial, &c , over, the next thing 
was to sentence and punish Mj'. V. Buenside 
was graciously pleased to sentence the victim 
to confinement, which the President, in the 
plenitude and magnanimity of His Majesty's 
power, commuted, by substituting banishment 
— a punishment unknown before, on this free 
continent — a punishment so long the disgrace 
to British Statutes, but no longer known to 
the English criminal code. 

The arrest and deportation of Mr. V. arous- 
ed the most intense excitement throughout the 
north. The people saw in it a rapidly germi- 
nating despotism, and public meetings were 
held in numerous places — calm, yet firm and 
decided resolves were adopted, protesting to 
the President against the usurpation of power, 
and the striking down at one blow, the last 
barrier between despotism and civil liberty. 

The following resolves and 'correspondence 
with the President, are self-explanatory. 

THE ALBANY RESOLUTIONS AND THE PRESI- 
DENT'S EETLY. 

Letter of the Committi:e and Resolutions. 
Albany, May 19, 1S63. 
To His Excellency the President of the United States: 

The undersigned, officers of a public meet- 
ing held at the city of Albany on the 16th day 
of May instant, herewith transmit to your Ex- 
cellency a copy of the resolutions adopted at 
the said meeting, and respectfully request your 
earnest consideration of them. They deem it 
proper on their personal responsibility to state 
that the meeting was one of the most respect- 
able as to numbers and character, and one of 
the most earnest in the support of the Union 
ever held in the city. 

Yours, with great regard, 

ERAgTUS CORNING, President. 

ELI PERRY, Vice President. 

PETER GRANSEYOORT, Vice President. 

PETER MONTEATII, Vice President. 

SAMUEL Vi. GIBBS, Vice President. 

JOHN NIBLACK, Vice President. 

H. W. McOLELLAN, Vice President. 

LEMUEL W. ROGERS, A'ice President. 

WM. SEYMOUH, Vice President. 

JEREMIAH OSBORN, Vice President. 

WM. S. PADDOCK, Vice President. 

J. B. SANDERS, Vice President. 

EDWARD MULCAUY, Vice President. 

D. V. N. RADCLIEFE, Vice President. 

WM. A. RICE, Secretary. 

EDWARD NEWCOMB, Secretary. 

R. W. PECKHAM, Jr., Secretary. 

M. A. NOLAN, Secretary. 

JOHN R. NESSEL, Secretary. 

C. AV. WEEKS, Secretary. 



200 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



Resolutions Adopted at the Meeting held in 
Albany, jV. V., on thelQlh of 3Iaij, 1863. 

Eesolved, That tLe Dcmocriils of Ntw York poiat to 
their' uniform course of action during the two years of 
civil war through which we have jiasseil, to the alacrity 
•which they have evinced in filling the ranks of tlie army, 
to their contributions and sacrifices as the evidence of 
their patriotism and devotion to the cause of our imperil- 
ed country. jSever in the history of civil wars has a gov- 
ernment been sustained with such ample resources of 
means and men as the people have voluntarily placed in 
the hands of the administration. 

Kesolvcd, That as Democrats we are determined tomain- 
tain this patriotic attitude, and, <lesj.ite of adverse and 
disheartening circumstances, to devote all our energies to 
maintain the cause of the Union, to secure peace through 
victory, and to bring back the restoration of all the states 
under the safeguard of the Constitution. 

Resolved, That while we will not consent to be misap- 
prehended on these points, we are determined not to be 
misunderstood in regard to others not less essential. We 
demand that the administration shall be true to the con- 
stitutiofa; shall recosnizo and maintain the rights of the 
states and the liberties of the citizen; shall everywhere, 
outside of the lines of necessary military occupation and 
the scenes of insurrection, exert all its powers to sustain 
the supremacy of the civil over military law. 

Resolved, That in view of these principles we denounce 
the recent assumption of a military commander to seize 
and try a citizen of Ohio, Clement L. Yallandigham, for 
no other reason than words addressed to a public meeting, 
in criticism of the course of the administration, and in 
condemnation of the military orders of that General. 

Resolved, That this assumption of power by a military 
tribunal, if successfully asserted, not only abrogates the 
right of the people to assemble and discuss the aftairs of 
government, the liberty of speech and of the press, the 
right of trial by jury, the law of evidence, and the privi- 
lege of habeas corpus, but it strikes a fatal blow at the 
supremacy of law and the authority of State and Federal 
constitutions. 

Resolved, That the constitution of the United States... 
the siipreme law of the land. ..has defined the crime of 
treason against the United States tocousist "only in levy- 
ing war against them, or adhearing to their enemies, giv- 
ing them aid and comfort ;" and has provided that "no 
person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testi- 
mony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on con- 
fession in open court." And it farther provides that "no 
person shall be held to answer for a capital or etherwiso 
infamous crime, unless on the presentment or an indict- 
ment by a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land 
and naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service 
in time of war or public danger ;" and farther, that, "in 
all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right 
of a speedy and jniblic trial by au impartial jury of the 
State and district wherein the crime wascommittod. 

Resolved, That these safeguards of the rights of the 
citizen against the pretensions of arbitrary power wore 
intended more especially for his protection in times of civil 
commotion. They were secured substantially to theEng- 
lish people after "years of protracted civil war, and were 
adopted into our constitution at the close of the revolu- 
tion. They have stood the test of seventy-six years of 
trial, under our republican system, uudec circumstances 
which show that while they constitute the foundation of 
all free government, they are the elements of the endur- 
ing stability of the Kepublic. 

Resolved, That, in adopting the language of Daniel 
■\Vebster, we declare, "It is the ancient and undoubted pre- 
rogative of this people to canvass public measures and the 
merits of public men." It is a "home-bred right," a 
fire-side privilege. It has been enjoyed iu every house, 
cottage and cabin in the nation . It is as uudoubted as the 
right of breathing the air or walking on the earth. Be- 
longing to private life as a right it belongs to pubUclifo as 
a duty, and is the last duty which those representatives 
■we are shall find us to abandon, Aiming at all times to 
be courteous and temperate in its use, except when the 
right itself is questioned, we shall place ourselves on the 
extreme bounds of our own right and bid defiance to any 
arm that would move us from our ground. "This high 
constitutional privilege we shall defend and exercise in all 
places— iu time of peace, iu time of war, and at all times. 
Living, we shall assert it; and should we leave no other 
inheritance to our children, by the blessingof God we \\ill 
leave them the inheritance of free principles and the ex- 



ample of a manly, independent and Jconstitutional defence 
of tUem." 

Resolved, That in the election of Gov. Seymour, the 
people of this State, by an emphatic majority, declared 
their condemnation of the system of arbitrary arrests, and 
their determination to stand by the constitution. That 
the revival of this lawless system can have but one re- 
sult: to divide and distract the \orth, and to destroy its 
confidence in the purposes of the administration. That 
we deprecate it as an element of confusion at home, of 
weakness to our armies in the field, and as calculated to 
lower the estimate of American character and magnify the 
apparent peril of our cause abroad. And that, regarding 
the blow struck at a citizen of Ohio as aimed at the rights 
of every citizen of the Nortli, we denounce it as against 
the spirit of our laws and constitution, and most earnestly 
call upon the President of the United States to reverse the 
action of the military tribunal which has passed a "cruel 
and unusual punishment" upon the party arrested, pro- 
hibited in terms by the constitution, and to restore him to 
the liberty of which ho has been deprived. 

Resolved, That the President, Vice-Presidents, and 
Secretary of this mooting be requested to transmit a copy 
of these resolutions to his Excellency the President of the 
United States, with the assurance of this meeting of their 
hearty and earnest desire to support the government in 
every constitutional and lawful measure to suppress the 
existing rebellion. 



Mr. Lincoln^ s Reply. 



Executive Maxsiox. 



Washington, June 12, lSi.;3. 



•'} 



lion. Erastus Corning and others : 

Gentlemen — Your letter of may 19, inclos- 
ing the resolutions of a public meeting held at 
Albany, New York, on the 10th of the same 
month, was received several days ago. 

The resolutions, as I understand them, are 
resolved into two propositions — first, the ex- 
pression of a purpose to sustain the cause of 
the Union, to secure peace through victory, 
and to support the administration iu every 
constitutional and lawful measure to suppress 
the rebellion; and, secondly, a declaration of 
censMre upon the administration for supposed 
unconstitutional action, such as the making of 
military arrests. And from the two proposi- 
tions a third is deduced, which is, that the 
gentlemen composing the meeting are resolved 
on doing their part to maintain our common 
government and country, despite the folly or 
wickedness, as they may conceive, of any ad- 
ministration, 'i'nis position is eminently pat- 
riotic, and, as such, I thank the meeting and 
congratulate the nation for it. My own purpose 
is the same; so that the meeting and myself 
have a common object and can htive no differ- 
ence, except in the choice of means or mea- 
sures for effecting that object. 

And here I ought to close this paper, and 
would close it, if there were no apprehensions 
that more injurious consequences than any 
merely personal to myself might follow the 
censures systematically cast upon me for doing 
what, in my view of duty, I could not forbear. 
The resolutions promise to support me in every 
constitutional and lawful measure to suppress 
the rebellion, and I have not knowingly em- 
ployed, nor shall knowingly employ, any other. 
But the meeting, by their resolutions, assert 
that certain military arrests, and proceedings 
following them, for which I am ultimately re- 
sponsible, arc unconstitutional. I think they 
are not. 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



201 



The resolutions quote from the constitutioa 
the definition of treason, and also the limiting 
safeguanls and guarantees therein provided 
for the citizen on trials for treason, and on his 
fjeicg held to answer for capital or other infa- 
mous crimes, and, in criminal prosecutions, 
his right to a speedy and public trial by an im- 
partial jury. The pro'lVeed to resolve 

" Tbat tliese 8afoguarfls ot the rights of tho citizen 
against tlie pretensions of arbitrary power were IntemleJ 
more expecially for his protection in times of civil conimo- 
tioa." 

And, apparently to demonstrate the propo- 
sition, the resolutions proceed; 

"They wero secured substantially to tho English people 
after years of protracted civil war, and wore adopted into 
our constitution at tho close of the revolution." 

Would not the demonstration have been bet- 
ter if it could have been truly said that these 
safeguards had been adopted and announced du- 
ring the civil wars and during our revolution, 
instead of after the one and at the close of the 
other? I, too, am devotedly for them after 
civil war, and before civil war, and at all times, 
"except when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, 
the public safety may require" their suspen- 
sion. The resolutions proceed to tell us that 
these safeguards • 

"Ilave stood the test of sevent3'-seven years of trial, 
under our republican system, under circumstances which 
show tliat wliile they constitute tho foundation of all free 
governments they are the elements of the euduring stabil- 
ity of the Republic." 

No one denies that they have so stood the 
test up to the beginning of the present rebellion 
if we accept a certain occurrence at New Or- 
leans; nor does any one question that they will 
stand the same test much longer after the re- 
bellion closes. But these provisions of the 
constitution have no application to the present 
case we have in hand, because the arrests com- 
plained of ivere not made for ti-eason — that is, 
not for the treason defined in the constitution, 
and upon the conviction of which the punish- 
ment is death — nor yet were they made to hold 
persons to ansiver for any capital or othertuise 
infamous crimes; nor were the proceedings fol- 
lowing, in any constitutional or legal sense, 
''■criminac Prosecutions.^^ [In this connection 
we call the readers attention to the speech of 
Edward Livingston, on a subsequent page.] 
The arrests were made on totally different 
grounds, and the proceeding following accord- 
ed with the grounds of the arrest. Let us con- 
sider the real case with which we are dealing, 
and apply to it the parts of the constitution 
plainly made for such cases. 

Prior to my installation here, it had been in- 
culcated that any state had a lawful right to 
secede from the national Union, and, that it 
would be expedient to exercise the right when- 
ever the devotees of the doctrine should fail to 
elect a President to their own liking. I was 
j elected contrary to their liking; and accor- 
dingly, so far as it was legally possible, they 
had taken seven states out of the Union, had 
seized many of the United States forts, and 
had fired upon the United States flag, all be- 
14 



fore I was inaugurated, and, of course, before 
1 had done any oihcial act whatever. The re- 
bellion thus began, soon ran into the present 
civil war; and, in certain respects, it began on 
very unequal terms between the parties. The 
insurgents had been preparing for it more than 
thirty years, while the government had taken 
no steps to resist them. The former had care- 
fully considered all the means which could be 
turned to their account. It undoubtedly was a 
well-pondered reliance with tbcm that in their 
unrestricted efforts to destroy Union. Constitu- 
tion and law, all t ogelher, the government 
would, in a great degree be restrained by the 
same constitution and law from arresting their 
progress. Their sympathizers pervaded all de- 
partments of the government and nearly all 
communities of the people. From this materi- 
al, under cover of "liberty of speech," liber- 
ty of the press," and '■^habeas corpus'' they 
bored to keep on foot amongst us a most effici- 
ent corps of spies, informers, suppliers, and 
aiders and abettors of their cause in a thou- 
sand ways. They knew that, in times such as 
they were inaugurating, by the constitution it- 
self, the '■'habeas corpus'' might be suspended; 
but they also knew they had friends who would 
make a question as to who was to suspend it ; 
meanwhile their spies and others might remain 
at large to help on their cause. Or if, as has 
happeued, the Executive should suspend the 
writ, without ruinous waste of time, instances 
of arresting innocent persons might occur, as 
arc always likely to occur in such cases, and 
then a clamor could be raised in regard to this 
which might be at least of some service to the 
insurgent cause. It needed no very 
keen perception to discover this part 
of the enemy's programme so soon as, by 
open hostilities, their machinery was fairly put 
in motion. Yet, thoroughly imbued with a 
reverence for the guaranteed rights of individ- 
uals, I was slow to adopt the strong measures 
which by degrees I have been forced to regard 
as being within the exceptions of the constitu- 
tion and as indispensible to the public safety. 
Nothing is better known to history than that 
courts of justice are utterly incompetent to 
such cases. Civil courts are organized chiefly 
for trials of individuals, or, at most, a few in- 
dividuals acting in concert; and this in quiet 
times, and on charges of crimes well defined in 
the law. Even in times of peace, bands of 
horse thieves and robbers frequently grow too 
numerous and powerful for the ordinary courts 
of justice. But what comparison in numbers 
have such bands ever borne to the insurgent 
sympathizers even in many of the loyal States? 
Again, a jury too frequently has at least one 
member more ready to hang the panel than to 
hang the traitor. And yet, again, he who dis- 
suades one man from volunteering, or induces 
one soldier to desert, weakens the Union cause 
as much as he who kills a Union soldier in bat- 
tle. Yet this dissuasion or inducement maybe 
so conducted as to be no defined crime of which 
any civil court would take cognizance. 

Ours is a case of rebellion — so called by the 
resolutions before me — in fact, a clear, flagrant 



-202 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



and gigantic case of rel)elliou: and the provis- 
ion of the constitution that --the privilege of 
the writ uf habeas corjyus &\iiA\ not be suspend- 
ed unless when, in case of rebellion or inva- 
sion, the public safety may require it," [But 
the writ had not then been siispeinled:] is the 
provision which specially applies to our present 
case. This provision plainly attests the under- 
standing of those who made the constitution, 
that ordinary courts of justice are inadequate 
to "cases of rebellion" — attests their purpose 
that, in such cases, men may be held in custo- 
dy whom the courts, acting on ordinary rules, 
■would discharge. Habeas corjius docs not dis- 
charge men who are proved to be guilty of de- 
fined crime; and its suspension is allowed by 
the constitution on purpose that men may 
be arrested and held who cannot he proved 
to be guilty of defined crime, '"When, in 
case of rebellion or invasion, the public 
saiety may require it." This is precisely 
our present case — a case of rebellion, where- 
in the public safety does require the 
suspension. Indeed, arrests by process of 
courts, and arrests in cases of rebellion, do 
not proceed together altogether upon the same 
basis. The former is directed at the small 
percentage of ordinary and continuous perpe- 
tration of crime, while the latter is directed 
at sudden and extensive uprisings against the 
government, which at most will succeed or fail 
.\n no great length of time. In the latter case, 
arrests are made, not so much for what has 
been duuc. ua for ichat probably would be done 
[0. Moses, what a rule.] The latter is more 
for the preventive and less for the vindictive 
than the foi-mer. In such cases the purposes 
of men are much mure easily understood than 
in cases of ordinary crime. The man who 
stands by and says nothing when the peril of 
his government is discussed cannot be misun- 
derstood. If not hindered, he is sure to help 
the enemy; [so that Vallandigham was ar- 
rested for what he might do!] much more 
if he talks ambiguously — talks for his coun- 
try with ^^ buts,^' and " i/s," and ^^ andsP 
Of how little value the constitutional provi- 
sions I have quoted will be rendered, if arrests 
shall never be made until defined crimes shall 
have been committed, may be illustrated by a 
few notable examples. General John C. Breck- 
inridge, General Robert E. Lee, General 
Joseph E. Johnston, General John B. Magru- 
der, General William B. Preston, General Si- 
mon B. Buckner and Commodore Franklin Bu- 
chanan, now occupying the very highest pluces 
in the rebel war service, were all within the 
power of the government sii^-ce the rebellion 
began, and were nearly as well known to be 
traitors then as now. Unquestionably, if we 
Had seized and held them the insurgent cause 
would be much weaker. But no one of them 
had then committed any crime defined in the 
law. Every one of them, if arrested, would 
have been discharged on habeas corpus were the 
writ allowed to operate. In view of these and 
similar cases, I think the time not likely to 
come when I shall be blamed for having made 
too few arrests rather than too many. 



By the third resolution the meeting indicate 
their opinion that military arrests may be con- 
stitutional in localities where rebellion actually 
exists, but that such arrests are unconstitutional 
in localities where rebellion or insurrection does 
not actually exist. They insist that such ar- 
rests shall not be mai^e -'outside of the lines of 
necessary military ow^^pation and the scenes of 
insurrection." Inasmuch, however, as the 
constitution itself makes no such distinction, I 
am unable to believe that there is any such con- 
stitutional distinction. I consider that the class 
of arrests complained of can be constitutional 
only when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, 
the public safety may require them; and I 
insist that in such cases they are constitution- 
al wherever the public safety does require 
them, as well in places to which they 
may prevent the rebellion extending 
as in those places where it may be already 
prevailing, as well where they may restrain 
mischievous interference with the raising and 
supplying armies to suppress the rebellion, as 
where the rebellion may actually be; as well 
where they may restrain the enticing men out 
of the army, as where they could prevent mu- 
tiny in the army; equally constitutional at all 
places where they will conduce to the public 
safety, as against the danger of rebellion or in- 
vasion. Take the particular case mentioned 
by the meeting. H is asserted, in substance, 
that Mr. Vallandigham was, by a military com- 
mander, seized and tried "for no other reason 
than words addressed to a public meeting, in 
criticism of the course of the administration, 
and in condemnation of the military orders of 
the General." Now, if there be no mistake 
about this; if this assertion is the truth and the 
whole truth; if there was no other reason for 
the arrest, then I concede that the arrest was 
wrong. But the arrest, I understand, was 
made for a very different reason. Mr. 
Vallandigham avows his hostility to the war on 
the part of the Union; and his arrest was made 
because he was laboring, with some effect to 
prevent the raising of troops, to encourage de- 
sertions from the army, and to leave the rebel- 
lion without an adequate military force to sup- 
press it. [Nothing of this kind appears in evi- 
dence against him.] He was not arrested be- 
cause he was damaging the political prospects 
of the Administration or the personal interest 
of the Commanding General, but because he 
was damaging the army, upon the existence and 
vigor of which the life of the nation depends. 
He was warring upon the military, and this 
gave the military constitutisnal jurisdiction to 
lay hands upon 'him. If Mr. Vallandigham 
was not damaging the military power of the 
country, then his arre.st was made on mistake 
of fact, which I would be glad to correct on 
reasonably satisfactory evidence. [General 
BuRxN'siDE himself furnished the President 
the best evidence on this point, when he said 
that the army would "tear to pieces'' any man 
who should talk as Vallandigham did. The 
fact and corolary do not lay together. — Ed.] 

I understand the meeting, whose resolutions 
I am considering, to be in favor of suppressing 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK 



203 



the rebellion by military force — by armies. 
Long expeiience has shown that armies cannot 
be maintained unless desertion shall be punish- 
ed by the severe penalty of death. The case 
requires, and the law auvl the constitution 
sanction, this punishmeat. !Must I shoot a 
simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I 
must not touch a hair of a willy agitator who 
induces him to desert? This is none the less 
injurious when effected by gettiag a father, or 
brother, or friend into a public meeting, and 
there work upon his feelings till he is persua- 
ded to write the soldier boy that he is fighting 
in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a 
contemptible government, too weak to arrest 
and punish him if he shall desert. I think that 
in such a case to silence the agitator and save 
the boy is not only constitutional, but withal a 
great meroy. 

If I be wrong on the question of constitu- 
tional power, my error lies in believing that 
certain proceedings are constitutional when, in 
cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety 
requires them, which would not be constitu- 
tional when, in the absence of rebellion or in- 
vasion, the public safety does not require 
them. In other words, that the constitution is 
not in its application in all respects the same 
in case of rebellion or invasion involving the 
public safety, as it is in times of profound 
peace and public security. The constitution 
itself makes the distinction: and I can no more 
be persuaded that the government can consti- 
tutionally take no strong measures in time of 
rebellion, because it can be shown that the 
same could not be lawfully taken in time of 
peace, than I can be persuaded that a particu- 
lar drug is not good medicine for a sick man 
because it can be shown that it is not good for 
a well man. Nor am I able to appreciate the 
danger apprehended by the meeting that the 
American people will, by means of military 
arrests during the rebellion. lose the right of 
public discussion, the liberty of sjieech and the 
press, law of evidence, trial \jy ^ury and habeas 
corpus throughout the indefinite peaceful fu- 
ture which I trust lies before them, any more 
than I am able to believe that a man could con- 
tract so strong an appetite for emetics during 
temporary illness as to persist in feeding upon 
them during the remainder of his healthful 
life. 

In giving the resolutions that earnest consid- 
eration which you request me, I cannot over- 
look the fact that the meeting speak as "dem- 
ocrats." Nor can I, with full respect to their 
known intelligence, and the faii'ly presumed 
deliberation with which they prepared their 
resolutions, be permitted to suppose that this 
occurred by accident, or in any other way than 
that tliey preferred to designate themselves 
"democrats" rather than "American citizens." 
In this time of national peril I would have pre- 
ferred to meet you upon a level one step higher 
than any party platform, because I am sure 
that, from such more elevated position, we 
could do better battle for the country we all 
love than we possibly can from those lower 
fines where, from the force of habit, the preju- 



dices of the past and the selfish hopes of the 
future, we are sure to extend much of 
our ingenuity and strength in finding 
fault with and aiming blows at each 
other. But since you have denied me this, I 
will yet be thankful, (or the country's sake, 
that not all Democrats have done so. He on 
whose discretionary judgment Mr. Vallandig- 
ham was arrested and tried is a Democrat, 
having no old party affinity with me; and the 
Judge who rejected tae constitutional view 
expressed in these resolutions, by refusing to 
discharge Mr. Vallandigham on habeas corpus , 
is a Democrat of better days than these, having 
received his judicial mantle at the hands of 
President Jackson. And still more, of all 
those Democrats who are nobly exposing their 
lives and shedding their blood on the battle- 
field, I have learned that many approve the 
course taken with Mr. Vallandigham, while 
I have not heard a single one condemn- 
ing it. I cannot assert that there are none 
such. And the name of President 
Jackson recalls an instance of pertinent 
history. After the battle of New Orleans, 
and while the fact that the treaty of peace had 
been concluded was well known in the city, but 
before official knowledge of it had arrived. Gen- 
eral Jackson still maintained martial or mili- 
tary law. NoAv, that it could be said that the 
war was over, the clamor against martial law, 
which had existed from the first, grew more 
furious. Among other things a Mr. Louailler 
published a denunciatory newspaper article. — 
General Jackson arrested him. A lawyer by 
the name of Morel procured the United States 
Judge Hall to order a writ of habeas corpus to 
relieve Mr. Louaillier. Gen. Jackson arrested 
both the lawyer and the Judge. A Mr. Hol- 
lander ventured to say of some part of the mat- 
ter that "it T.'as a dirty trick." Gen. Jackson 
arrested him. When the officer attempted to 
serve the writ of Aa^iffTi corpus, Gqu. Jackson 
took it from him, and sent him away with a 
copy. Holding the Judge in custody a ievr 
days, the General sent him beyond the limits 
of his encampment, and set him at liberty, 
with an order to remain until the ratification of 
peace should be regularly announced, or until 
the British should have left the southern coast. 
A day or two more elapsed, the ratification of 
the treaty of peace was regulai-ly announced, 
and the Judge and others were fully liberated. 
A few days more, and the Judge called Gen. 
Jackson into court and fined him a thousand 
dollars for having arrested him and the others 
named. The General paid the fine, and there 
the matter rested for nearly thirty years, when 
Congress refunded principal and interest. The 
late Senator Douglas, then in the House of 
Representatives, took a leading part in the de- 
bates, in which the constitutional question was 
much discussed. I am not prejvired to say 
whom the journals would show to have voted 
for the measure. 

It may be remarked, first, that we had the 
same constitution then as now; secondly, that 
we then had a case of invasion, that the per- 
manent right of the people to public discussion, 



204 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



tlie liberty of speech and of the press, the trial 
by jury, the law of evidence, and the habeas 
corpus suffered no detriment whatever by the 
conduct of General Jackson, or its subsequent 
approval by the American Congress. 

And yet, let me say that in my own discre- 
tion I do not know whether I would have order- 
ed the arrest of Mr. Vallandigham. While I 
cannot shift the responsibility from myself, I 
hold that, as a general rule, the commander in 
the field is the better judge of the necessity in 
any particular case. Of course, I must prac- 
tice a general directory and revisory power in 
the matter. 

One of the resolutions expresses the opinion 
of the meeting that arbitrary arrests will have 
the effect to divide and distract those who 
should be united in suppressing the rebellion, 
and I am specifically called on to discharge 
Mr. Vallandigham. I regard this as. at least, 
a fair appeal to me on the expediency of exer- 
cising a constitutional power which I think ex- 
ists. In response to such appeal I have to say 
it gave me pain when I learned that Mr. Val- 
landigham had been arrested — that is, I was 
pained that there 'hould have seemed 
to be a necessity for arresting him and 
that it will afford me great pleasure to dis- 
charge him as soon as I can by any means, be- 
lieve the public safety will not sufi'er by it. I 
farther say that, as the war progresses, it ap- 
pears to me, opinion and action, which were in 
great confusion at fii'st, take shape and fall into 
moi-e regular channels, so that the necessity 
for strong dealing with them gradually decreas- 
es. I have every reason to desire that it should 
cease altogether, and far from the least is my 
regard for the opinions and wishes of those 
who, like the meeting at Albany, declare their 
purpose to sustain the government in every 
constitutional and lawful measure to suppress 
the rebellion. Still I must continue to do so 
much as may seem to be required by the pub- 
lic safety. 

A. LINCOLN. 

To which the committee replied in the fol- 
lowing 

Scatkinj and Conclusive Rejoinder. 

STATEMENT. 

At a public tjieeting held at the Capitol, in the city of 
Albany, on thelCth of May, 1863, to consider the arbitra- 
ry arrest of Mr. Vallandigham, certain resolutions wtre 
adopted, copies of which were by the direction ot the 
meeting, transmitted by its officers to President Lincoln, 
who, in a communication dated the 12th of June, 1S63, 
addressed to the gentlemen ref^-rrod to, wh'ch has ap- 
peared very generally in the public prints, discussed tlie 
resolutions and controvorted certain positions which they 
maintained in regard to personal rights and constitutional 
obligations. 

On the receipt of this communication, the Hon. Erastus 
Corning, chairman of the meeting referred to, addressed 
the President, informing him, in substance, that the 
special duty assigned to the officers of the meeting had 
been fulfilled by sending the resolutions to his Excellency; 
but adding that , in view of the importance of the princi- 
ples involved, and the public interest which the matter 
had assumed, he had deemed it proper to submit the Pres- 
ident's letter to the committee who reported the resolu- 
tions.for such action as in their judgment it might demand. 

The committee, having considered the subject, and 
the questions at issue as ot the gravest importance, replied 



to the Presidents's communication, whicii reply is now 
laid before the public. At the request of the committee, 
it was sent to the President by the officers of the meeting, 
in a letter under their signatures, of which the following 
is a copy; 
"To His Excellency the Piesident of the United States: 

"Sir: — The undersigned, officers of the public meeting 
held in this city on the lOth day of May last, to whom 
yourcomnmnication of the 12th of this m.onth, comment- 
ing on the resolutions adopted at tliat meeting, was ad- 
dressed, have the honor to send to your Excellency, a re- 
ply to that communication by thecommittee who reported 
the resolutions. The great importance t.j the people of 
this country of the questions discussed must be our apol- 
ogy, if any be needed, for saying that we fully concur in 
this reply, and believe it to be in entire hirr.iony witli thi> 
views and sentiments of the meeting refe:vei to. 

'•We are, with great respect, trulv vour::. 

"EKASXUS CuKNINiT. President. 
[This was also signed by the entire Committee.] 

"Albany, June 30, 1S63." 

To His Excellency Abraham Liscolm, President of the 
United States: 

SiE — Your answer, which has appeared in 
the public prints, to the resolutions adopted at 
a recent meeting in the city of Albany, affirm- 
ing the personal rights and liberties of the 
citizens of this country, has been refei'red to 
the undersigned — the committee who prepared 
and reporteu those resolutions. The subject 
will now receive from us further attention, 
which your answer seems to justify, if not to 
invite. We hope not to appear wanting in the 
respect due to your high position, if we reply 
with a freedom and earnestness suggested by 
the infinite gravity and importance of the ques- 
tion upon which you have thought proper to 
take issue at the bar of public opinion. 

You seem to be aware that the constitution 
of the United States, which you have sworn to 
protect and defend, contains the following 
guarantees, to which we again ask yonr atten- 
tion. (1) Congress shall make no law abridg- 
ing the freedom of speech or of the press. — 
(2.) The right of the people to be secure in 
their persons against unreasonable seizures 
shall not be violated, and no warrant shall 
issue but upon probable cause, supported by 
oath. (3.) No persons except soldiers and 
marines in the service of the government shall 
be held to answer for a capital or infamous 
crime, unless on presentment or indictment of 
a grand jury, nor shall any person be deprived 
of life, liberty or property, without due pro- 
cess of law. (4.) In all criminal prosecutions, 
the accused shtiU enjoy the right of a speedy 
and public trial by an impartial jury of the 
State or district in which the crime shall have 
been committed, and to be confronted with the 
witnesses against him. 

You are also, no doubt, aware that, on the 
adoption of the constitution, these invaluable 
provisions were proposed by the jealous cau- 
tion of the states, and were inserred as amend- 
ments for a perpetual assui-ance of liberty 
against the encroachments of power From 
your earliest reading of history, you also know 
that the great principles of liberty and law 
which underlie these provisions were derived 
to us from the British constitution. In that 
country they were secured by Magna Charta, 
more than sis hundred years ago, and they 
have been confirmed by many and repeated; 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK. 



205 



statutes of the realm. A single palpable vio- 
lation of them in England would not only 
arouse the public indignation, but would en- 
danger the throne itself. For a persistent 
disregard of them Charles the First was de- 
throned and beheaded by his rebellious sub- 
jects. 

The fact hr.s already passed into history that 
the sacred rights and immunities which were 
designed to be protected by these constitution- 
al guarantees have not been preserved to the 
people during your administration. In viola- 
tion of the first of them, the freedom of the 
press has been denied. In repeated instances 
newspapers have been suppressed jin the loyal 
states, because they criticised, as constitution- 
ally they might, those fatal errors of policy 
which have characterized the conduct of public 
affairs since your advent to power. In viola- 
tion of the second of them, hundreds, and we 
believe thousands, of men have been seized 
and immure 1 in prisons and bastiles, not only 
without wariant upon probable cause, but with- 
out any warrant, and for no other cause than a 
constitutional exercise of freedom of speech 
In violation of all these guarantees, a distin- 
guished citizen of a peaceful and loyal state 
has been torn from his home at midnight by a 
band of soldiers, acting under the order of one 
of your Generals, tried before a miliiary com- 
mission, without judge or jury, convicted. and 
sentenced without the suggestion of any offence 
known to the constitution or laws of this coun- 
try. For all these acts you avow yourself ul- 
timately responsible. In the special case of Mr. 
Vallandiguam, the injustice commenced by 
your subordinate was consummated by a sen- 
tence of esile from home pronounced by you. 
That great wrong more than any other which 
preceded it, asserts the principles of a supreme 
despotism. 

These repeated and continued invasions of 
constitutional liberty and private right have 
occasioned profound anxiety in the public mind 
The appn-hension and alarm which they are 
calculated :o produce have been greatly enhan- 
ced by your attempt to justify them, because in 
that attem] " you assume to yourself a rightful 
authority i n-sessed by no constitutional mon- 
arch on earth. We accept the declaration that 
you prefer to exercise this authority with a 
moderation not hitherto exhibited. But, be- 
lieving as we do, that your forbearance is not 
the tenure by which liberty is enjoyed in this 
country, we propose to challenge the grounds 
on which your claim of supreme power is based. 
While yielding to you as a constitutional mag- 
istrate the deference to which you are entitled, 
we cannot accord to you the despotic power 
you claim, however indulgent and gracious you 
may promise to be in wielding it. 

We have carefully considered the grounds 
on which y:iur pretensions to more than legal 
authority are claimed to rest; and, if we do 
not misinterpret the misty and clouded forms 
of expression in which those pretensions are 
set forth, your meaning is, that, while the 
rights of the citizens are protected by the con- 
stitution in time of peace, they are suspended 



or lost in time of war, when invasion or rebel- 
ion exists. You do not, like many others in 
whose minds reason and the love of regulated 
liberty seem to be overthrown by the excite- 
ments of the hour, attempt to base this conclu- 
sion upon a supposed military necessity exist- 
ing outside of and transcending the constitu- 
tion, — a military necessity behind which the 
constitution itself disappears in a total eclipse. 
We do not find this gigantic and monstrous 
heresy put forth in your plea for absolute 
power, but we do find another equally subver- 
sive of liberty and law, and quite as certainly 
tending to the establishment of despotism. — 
You claim to have found, not outside, but with- 
in the constitution, a principle or germ of ar- 
bitrary power, which, in time of war, expands 
at once into an absolute sovereignty, wielded 
by one man; so that liberty perishes, or is de- 
pendent on his will, his discretion, or his cap- 
rice. This extraordinary doctrine you claim 
to derive wholly from the claase of the consti- 
tution which, in case of invasion or rebellion, 
permits the writ of habeas corpus to be sus- 
pended. Upon this ground your whole argu- 
ment is based. 

You must permit us to say to you, with all 
due respect, but with the earnestness demand- 
ed by the occasion, that the American people 
will never acquiesce in this doctrine. In their 
opinion, the guarantees of the Constitution, 
which secure to them freedom of speech and of 
the press, immunities from arrest for offences 
unknown to the laws of the land, and the right 
of trial by jury before the tribunals provided 
by those laws, instead of military commissions 
and drum-head courts martial, are living .and 
vital principles IN PEACE AND in war, at all 
times and under all circumstances. No soph- 
istry or argument can shake this conviction, 
nor will the people require its confirmation by 
logical sequences and deductions. It is a con- 
viction deeply interwoven with the instincts, 
the habits, and the education of our country- 
men. The right to form opinions upon public 
measures and men, and to declare those opin- 
ions by speech or writing, with the utmost lat- 
itude of expression: the right of personal lib- 
erty unless forfeited according to established 
laws, and for offences previously defined by 
law, the right, when accused of crime, to be 
tried where law is administered and punish- 
ment is pronounced only when the crime is le- 
gally ascertained; all these are rights instantly 
perceived, without argument or proof. No re- 
finement of logic can unsettle them in the 
minds of freemen; no power can annihilate 
them, and no force at the command of any 
Chief Magistrate can compel their- surrender. 

So far as it is possible for us to understand 
from your language the mental process which 
has led you to the alarming conclusions indica- 
ted by your communication, it is this: The 
habeas corpus is a remedial writ, issued by 
courts and magistrates to inquire into the cause 
of any imprisonment or restraint of liberty; on 
the return of which and upon due examination 
the person imprisoned is discharged if the re 
straint is unlawful, or admitted to bail if lie ap- 



206 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



pears to have been lawfully arrested and held 
to answer a criminal accusation. Inasmuch as 
this process may be suspended in time of war, 
you seem to think that every remedy for a false 
and unlawful imprisonment is abrogated; and 
from this postulate you reach at a single bound 
the conclusion that there is no liberty under 
the constitution which does not depend on the 
gracious indulgence of the Executive only. 
This great heresy once established, and by this 
mode of induction, there springs at once into 
existence a brood of crimes or offences unde- 
fined by any rule, and hitherto unknown to the 
laws of this country; and this is followed by in- 
discriminate arrests, midnight seizures, mili- 
tary commissions, unheard of modes of trial, 
and punishment, and all the machinery of ter- 
ror and Jespotism. Your language does not 
permit us to doubt as to your essential mean- 
ing, for you tell us that 

"arrests are not made so much for what has been done, as 
for what probably would be done." 

And again: 

"The man who stands by and says nothing when the 
peril of his, government is discussed cannot be misunder- 
stood. If not hindered [of course by arrest,] he is sure to 
telp the enemy, and much more if he talks ambiguously 
— talks for hij country with 'buts,' and 'ifs,' and ands.' " 

Tou also tell us that the arrests complained 
of have not been made "for the treason defined 
in the constitution," nor "for any capital or 
otherwise infamous crimes, nor were the pro- 
ceedings following in any constitution or legal 
sense criminal prosecutions." The very 
ground, then, of your justification is, that the 
victims of arbitrary ai-rest were obedient to 
every law, were guiltless of any known and 
defined offense, and therefore were without the 
protection of the constitution. The suspension 
of the writ of habeas corpus^ instead of being 
intended to prevent the enlargement of arrest- 
ed criminals until a legal trial and conviction 
can be had, is designed, according to your doc- 
trine, to subject innocent men to your supreme 
will and ple.asure. Silence itself is punishable 
according to this extraordinary theory, and 
still more so the expression of opinions, how- 
ever loyal, if attended with criticisms upon the 
policy of the government. We must respectful- 
ly refuse our assent to this theory of cons-itu- 
tional law. We think that men may be right- 
fully silent if they so choose, while clamorous 
and needy patriots proclaim the praises of those 
who wield power; and as :o the "buts," the 
"ifs," and the "ands," these are Saxon words 
and belong to the vocabulary of freemen. 

We have already said that the intuition of a 
free people instantly rejects these dangerous 
and unheard of doctrines. It is not our pur- 
pose to enter upon an elaborate and extended 
refutation of them. We submit to you, how- 
ever, one or two considerations, in the hope 
that you will review the subject with the ear- 
nest attention which its supreme importance 
demands. We say, then, are you not aware 
that the writ of habeas corpus is now suspended 
in any of the peaceful and loyal states of the 
Union. An act of Congress approved by you 
on the 3d of March, 1863, authorized the 



President to suspend it during the present re- 
bellion. That the suspension is a legislative, 
and not an executive act, has been held in 
every judicial decision ever made in this 
country, and we think it cannot be delegated 
to any other branch of the government. But, 
passing over that consideration, you have not 
exercised the power which Congress attempted 
to confer upon you. and the writ is not sus- 
pended in any part of the country where the 
civil laws are in force. Now, inasmuch as your 
doctrine of the arbitrary arrests and imprison- 
ment of innocent men, in admitted violation of 
express constitutional guarantees, is wholly 
derived from a suspension of the habeas corpus, 
the first step to be taken in the ascent to abso- 
lute power ought to be to make it known to the 
people that the writ is in fact suspended, to the 
end that they may know what is their condi- 
tion. You have not yet exercised this power, 
and, therefore, according to your own consti- 
tutional thesis, your conclusion falls to the 
ground. 

It is one of the provisions of the constitution 
and of the very highest value, that no ex post 
facto law shall be passed, the meaning of which 
is, that no act which is not against the law 
when committed can be criminal by subsequent 
legislation. But your claim is, that when the 
writ of habeas corpus is suspended, you may 
lawfully imprison and punish for the crime of 
silence, of speech and opinion. But, as these 
are not offences against the known and estab- 
lished law of the land, the constitutional prin- 
cipal to which we now refer plainly requires 
that you should, before taking cognisance of 
such offences, make known the rule of action, 
in order that the people may be advised in 
season, so as not to become liable to its penal- 
ties. Let us turn your attention to the most 
glaring and indefensible of all the assaults 
upon constitutional liberty, which have marked 
the history of your administration. No one 
has ever pretended that the writ of habeas cor- 
pus was suspended in the state of Ohio, where 
the arrest of a citizen at midnight, already re- 
ferred to, was made, and he p)laced before a 
court martial for trial and sentence, upon 
charges and specifications which admitted his 
innocence according to the existing laws of 
this country. Upon your own doctrine, then, 
can you hesitate to redress that monstrous 
wrong? 

But, sir, we cannot acquiesce in your dog- 
mas that arrests and imprisonment, without 
warrant or criminal accusation, in their nature 
lawless and arbitrary, opposed to the very 
letter of constitutional guarrantees,can become 
in any sense rightful by reason of a suspension 
of the writ of habeas corpus. AVe deny that 
the suspension of a single and peculiar remedy 
for such wrongs brings into existence new and 
unknown classes of olfences, or new causes for 
depriving men of their liberty. It is one of 
the most material purposes of that writ to en- 
large upon bail persons who, upon probable 
cause, are duly and legally charged with some 
known crime, and a suspension of the writ was 
never asked for in England nor in this country 



'SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



207 



except to prevent such enlargement when the 
supposeil ofifence was against the safetyof the 
government. In the year 1807. at the time of 
Burr's alleged conspiracy, a bill was passed in 
the Senate of the United States, suspending 
the writ of habeas corpus for a limited time, 
in all cases where person!^ were charged on oath 
with treason or other high crime or misdemean- 
or endangering the peace or safety of the gov- 
ernment. But your doctrine undisguisedly is, 
that a suspension of this writ justifies arrests' 
without warrant, without oath, and even with- 
out suspicion of treason or other crime. Your 
doctrine denies the freedom of speech and of 
the press. It invades the sacred domain of 
opinion and discussion. It denounces the "'ifs" 
and "buts" of the English language, and even 
the refuge of silence is insscure. 

We repeat, a suspension of the writ of haheas 
corpus merely dispenses with a single and pe- 
culiar remedy against an unlawful imprison- 
ment; but; if that remedj' had never existed, 
the right to liberty would be the same, and 
every invasion of that right would be condemn- 
ed not only by the constitution, but by princi- 
ples of far greater antiquity than the writ it- 
self. Our common law is not at all indebted 
to this writ for its action of false imprisonment, 
and the action would remain to the citizens if 
the writ were abolished forever. Again: every 
man, when his life or liberty is threatened 
without the warrant of law, may lawfully re- 
sist, and, if necessary in self-defence, may 
take the life of the aggressor. Moreover, the 
people of this country may demand the im- 
peachment of the President himself for ihe 
exercise of arbitrary power. And, when all 
these remedies shall prove inadequate for the 
protection of free institutions, there remains, 
in the last resort, the supreme right of revo- 
lution. You once announced this right with a 
latitude of expression which may well be con- 
sidered dangerous in the present crisis of our 
national history. You said: 

"Any people, anywhere, being inclined and having the 
power, have the right tosaiseup and shake off the exist- 
ing government and form a new one that suits them bet- 
ter. Xor is this right confined to cases where the people 
of an existing government may choose to exercise it.... 
Any portion of such people that can may revolutionize 
and make their own of so much of the territory as they 
inhabit. More th.an this, a majority of any portion of 
such people may revolutionize, putting down a minority 
iatermingled with or near about them, who may oppose 
their movements.". ..noZi4y/t« ly, Congressional Globe,, p. 
94.) 

Such were your opinions, and you had a 
constitutional right to declare them. If a citi- 
zen now should utter sentiments far less dan- 
gerous in their tendency,! your nearest mili- 
tary commander would consign him to a dun- 
geon, or to the tender mercies of a court mar- 
tial, and you would approve the proceeding. 

In our deliberate judgment, the constitution 
is not open to the new interpretation suggested 
by your communication now before us. We 
think every part of that instrument is harmo- 
nious and consistent. The possible suspension 
of the writ of haheas corpus is consistent with 
freedom of speech and of the press. The sus- 
pension of the remedial process may prevent 



the enlargement r.f the accused traitor or con- 
spirator, until he shall be legally tried and 
convicted or acquitted; but in this we find no 
justification for arrest and imprisonment with- 
out warrant, without cause, without the accu- 
sation or suspicion of crime. It seems to us, 
that the sacred right of trial by jury, and in 
courts where the law of the land is the rule of 
decision, is a right which is never dormant, 
never suspended, in peaceful and loyal commu- 
nities and states. Will you, Mr. President, 
maintain that, because the writ of habeas cor- 
pun may be in suspense, you can substitute 
soldiers and bayonets for the peaceful ojiera- 
tion of the laws, military commissions and in- 
quisitorial modes of trial, fjir the courts and 
juries prescribed by the constitution itself? 
And, if you cannot maintain this, then let us 
ask where the justification is for the monstrous 
proceeding in the case of a citizen of Ohio, to 
which we have called your attention? We know 
that a recreant Judge, whose uame has de- 
scended to merited contempt, found the apolo- 
gy on the outside of the supreme and funda- 
mental law of the constitution. But this is not 
the foundation on which your superstructure of 
power is built. 

We have menti&n«d the act of the last Con- 
gress professing to authorize a suspension of 
the writ of habeas corpus. This act now de- 
mands jour especial attention, because, if we 
are not greatly in error, its terms and plain 
intention are directly opposed to all the argu- 
ments and conclusions of your communication. 
That act, besides providing that ihe habeas cor- 
pus may be suspended, expressly commands 
that the names of all persons theretofore or 
thereafter arrested by authority of the Presi- 
dent, or his cabinet ministers, bei?ig citizens of 
states in which ihe adminiitratio?i of the laws 
has continued unimpaired, shall be turned over to 
the courts of the United States for the district in 
which such persons reside, or in which their 
supposed offenses were committed; and such 
return being made, if the next grand jury at- 
tending the court does not indict the alleged 
offenders, then the Judges are commanded to 
issue an ordar for their immediate discharge 
from imprisonment. Now, we cannot help ask- 
ing wheather you have overlooked this law, 
which most assuredly you are bound to ob- 
serve, or whether it be your intention to dis- 
regard it? Its meaning certainly' cannot be 
mistaken. By it the national legislature has 
said that the President may suspend the accus- 
tomed writ of habeas corpus, but at the same 
time it has comma^idcd that all arrests under 
his authority shall be promptly made known to 
the courts of justice, and that the accused par- 
ties shall be liberated, unless presented by a 
grand jury according to the constitution, and 
tried by a jury in the ancient and accustomed 
mode. The President may, possibly, so far as 
Congress can give the right, arrest without le- 
gal cause or warrant. We certainly deny that 
Congress can confer this right, because it is 
forbidden by the higher law of the constitution. 
But, waiving that consideration, this statute, 
by its very terms, promptly removes the pro- 



208 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS- 



ceedings in every case into the courts where 
the aafeguards of liberty are observed, and 
■where the persons detained are to be discharg- 
ed, unless indicted for criminal offences against 
the established and ascertained lavrs of the 
country. 

Upon what foundation, then, permit as to 
ask, do you rest the pretension that men who 
arc not accused of crime may be seized and 
imprisoned or banished at the will and plea- 
sure of the President or any of his subordi- 
nates in civil and military positions? "Where 
is the warrant for invading the freedom of 
speech and of the press? Where the justifiea- 
tion for placing the citizen on trial without the 
presentment of a grand jury and before milita- 
ry commissions? There is no power a^ 

THIS COUNTRY VTHICH CAN DISPENSE WI2H 

ITS LAWS The President is as much bound 
by them as the humblest individual. We pi'ay 
you to bear in mind, in order that you may 
duly estimate the feeling of the people on this 
subject, that, for the crime of dispensing with 
the laws and statutes of Great Britain, our an- 
cestors brought one monarch to the scaffold 
and expelled another from his throne. 

This power which you have erected in theory 
is of vast and limitahle proportions. If we 
may trust you to exercise it mercifully and le- 
niently, your successor, whether immediate cr 
more remote, may wield it with the energy of 
a Csesar or Napoleon, and with the will of a 
despot and a tyrant. It is a power withcwt 
boundary or limit, because it precedes upon a 
total suspension of all the constitutional aad 
legal safeguards which protect the rights of the 
cidzen. It is a power not inaptly described in 
the language of one of your Secretaries. Said 
Mr. Seward to the British Minister in Ws^sh- 
ington: 

"I can touch a bell on my right hand anJ order tljo- ar- 
rest of a citizen of Ohio. I can touch the bell again, and 
order the imprisonment of a citizen of New York, and no 
power on earth but that of the President can release thein, 
Can the Queen of Jingland, in her dominions, do as much? 

This is the very language of a perfect des- 
potism, and we learn from you. with profound 
emotion, that this is no idle boast It is a des- 
potism unlimited in principle, because the same 
arbitrary and unrestrained will or discretion 
which can place men under illegal restraint or 
banish them can apply the rack or the thumb- 
screw, can put to torture or .0 death. Not thus 
have the people of this country hitherto un- 
derstood their constitution. No argument can 
commend to their judgment such interpreta- 
tions of the great charter of their liberties. 
Quick as the lightning's flash, the intuitive 
sense of freemen perceives the sophistry and 
rejects the conclusion. 

Some other matters which your Excellency 
has presented demand our notice. 

In justification of your course as to Mr. Val- 
lancligham, you have referred to the arrest of 
Judge Hall at New Orleans by order of Gen. 
Jackson; but that case difl'ers widely from the 
case of Mr. Vallandigham. New Orleans was 
then, as you truly state, under "martial or 



military law." This was not ac- in Ohio, 
where Mr. Vallandigham was i-ji-resied. The 
administration of the civil lav? had' not been 
disturbed in that commonwealthi The courts 
were open, and justice was dispensed with its 
accustomed promptitude. In the case of Judge 
Hall, Gen. Jackson in a few days- sent him out- 
side of the line of his encampments and set 
him at liberty; but you have undertaken to 
banish Mr. Vallandigham from his-hoaae. You 
seem also to have forgotten that Gen. Jackson 
submitted implicitly to the jua^ment of the 
court which imposed the fine upenihim j that he 
enjoined his friends to assent, 

"as he most freely did, to the decision wMich haiij.ust been 
pronounced again.st him.'' 

More than this, you overlook fhe fiist that 
the then administration (in the language o-' a 
well-known author) "mildly but decitiedly re- 
buked the j>roceedings of Gen. Jnckson," and 
that the President viewed the subjeet with 
"surprise and solicitude." Unlike President 
Madison, yon, in a case much rsore unwarran- 
ted, approve th.e proceedings of youv subordi- 
nate officer, and, in addition, justify your 
course by a carefully considered: argument in 
its support. 

It is true that, after some tLfiirty yt^ays. Con- 
gress, in consideration of the devoted and pat- 
riotic services of Gen Jackson., refunded the 
amount of the fine he had paid'. But the long 
delay in doing this proved bow reluctant the 
American people were to do anything which 
could be considered as in any way approving 
the disregard shown to the majesty of the law, 
even by one who so emineatly enjoyed their 
confidence and regard. 

One object more, and we shall conclude. — 
You expressed your regret that our meeting 
spoke "as Democrats;" aad you say that, 

"in tliis time of national peril, you would have jjrefer- 
red to meet us upon a level, one step higher than any par- 
ty platform."' 

You thus compel us to allude to matters 
which we should have preferred to pass 
by. But we cannot omit to notice your 
criticism, as it casts-, at least an implied re- 
proach upon our motives and our proceed- 
ings. We beg to remind you that when the 
hour of our country's peril had come, when it 
was evident that a most gigantic effort was to be 
made to subvert our institutions and to over- 
throw the government, when it was vitally im- 
portant that party feeelings should be laid 
aside, and that all should be called upon to 
unite most cordially and vigorously to main- 
tain the Union; at the time when ycu were 
sworn into olBce as President of the United 
States, when you should have urged your fel- 
low citizens in the most emphatic manner to 
overlook all past differences and to rally in 
defence of their country iind its institutions, 
when you should have enjoined respect for the 
laws and the constitution, so clearly disregard- 
ed by the South; you chose for the first time, 
under like circumstances, in the history of our 
country, to set up^ party platform, called "the 
Chicago platform" as your creed, to advance 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



209 



it beyond tlic constitution, and to speak dispar- 
agingly of the great conservative tribunal of 
our country, so highly respected by all think- 
ing men who have inquired into our institu- 
tions — TUB SUPREME COUKT OF THE UNITED 
STATES. 

Your administration has been true to the 
principles you then laid down. Notwithstand- 
ing the fact that several hundred thousand 
democrats in the loyal states cheerfully re- 
sponded to the call of their country, filled the 
ranks of its armies, and by "their strong 
hands and willing arms," aided to maintain 
your Excellency and the officers of govern- 
ment in the possession of our national capital; 
notwithstanding the fact that the great body of 
the democrats of the country have, in the most 
patriotic spirit, given their best efforts, their 
treasure, their brothers and their sons to sus- 
tain the government and to put down the rebel- 
lion; you, choosing to overlook all this, have 
made your appointments to civil office, from 
yonr Cabinet officers and foreign Minister? 
down to the persons of lowest official grade 
among the tens of thousands engaged in col- 
lecting the revenues of the country, exclus- 
ively from your political associates. 

Under such circumstances, virtually pros- 
cribed by your administration, and while most 
of the leading journals which 8ui)ported it ap- 
proved the sentence pronounced against Mr. 
Valiandigham, was our true course, our honest 
course, to meet as "Democrats" that neither 
your Excellency or the country might mistake 
our antecedents or our position. 

In closing this communication, we desire to 
reaffirm our determination and wc doubt not 
that of every one who attended the meeting 
which ."idopted the resolutions wc have discuss- 
ed, expressed in one of those resolutions, to 
devote "all our energies to sustain the cause of 
the Union." 

Permit us. then, in this spirit, to ask your 
Excellency to re-examine the grave subjects 
we have considered, to the end that, on your 
retirement from the position you now occupy, 
you may leave behind you no doctrines and no 
farther precedents of despotic power to prevent 
you and your posterity from enjoying that con- 
stitutional liberty, which is the inheritance of 
us all, and to the end, alse, that history may 
speak of yaur administration with indulgence, 
if it cannot with approval. 

We are. :• i-. with great respect, yours truly. 

JOHN V. L. PHUYN, 

Chairman nf Committee. 
, ji.neil also by the entire Conin:itte«.l 
ALtA.w, . uiie .30, 1863, 

•COERESrOXDESCB WITH TOE OlilO COMMIT- 
TEE. 

The following is a correct copy of the cor- 
respondence between President Lincoln and 
the committee appointed by the Ohio Demo- 
cratic State Convention to ask for permission 
for Hon. C. L. Vallandigham to return to 
Ohio: 



The Letter to the President. 

AVasuingto.n CiTT, Jnne 20, 1SC3. 
To His K.\cellency the President of the United StiiteS : 

The undersigned, having been .appointed a 
committee, under the authority of the resolu- 
tions of the state convention, held at the city 
of Columbus, Ohio, on the 11th instant, to 
communicate with you on the subject of the 
arrest and banishment of Clement L. Vallan- 
digham, most respectfully submit the follow- 
ing as the resolutions of that convention, bear- 
ing upon the subject of this communication, 
and ask of your excellency their earnest con- 
sideration. And they deem it proper to state 
that the convention was one in which all parts 
of the state were lepresented, and one of the 
most respectable as to character and numbers, 
and one of the most earnest and sincere in sup- 
port of the Constitution and Union ever held 
in that state. 

lie.snlvcd, 1, That the wiil of tlie people, is the founda- 
tien of all freo govoniiiient ; that to give eflect to this 
■H'ill, free thought, free spei-ch and a tree press are abso- 
lutely indi.speiirf<able. WitJiout free discus.sion there is no 
certainty ol sound judj_'in(!it; without eound judgment 
there can be no wise govei iiineut. 

2. That it is an inherent and constitutional right cf the 
people to di6cus.s all measures of th ir government, and to 
approve or disapprove, as to their best judgment seems 
right. That they have a like right to iiropiose and advo- 
cate that iiolicy which in their judgment is best, aud to 
.argue and vote against whatever policy aeems to them tc( 
violate the Constitution, to impair their liberties, or to be 
detrimental to their welfare. 

3. That These and all other rights guaranteed to them 
by their constitutions are their rights in time of war as 
well ns in time of peace, and of far more value aud neces- 
sity in war than in peace, for in pe.ace liberty, security and 
property are seldom endangered ; in war they are ever in 
peril . 

i. That wo now say to aU whom it may concern, not by 
way of threat, but calmly and firmly, that we will not sur- 
render these rights nortnhmit to their forcible violatiou. 
AVe will obey the haws ourselves, and all others must obey 
them. 

11. That Ohio will adhere to the Constitution and the 
Union as the bast, it may be the last, liope of popular free- 
dom, and for all wrongs wliich may have been committed 
or evils which m.ay exist will seek redress, under the Con- 
stitution and within the Union, by the peaceful but pow- 
erful .agency of the sulfrages of a free people. 

14. That we will earnestly support every constitutional 
measure tending to preserve the Union of the states. A'o 
men have a greater interest in its preservation than we 
have — none desire it more; there are none who will nuike 
greater sacrifices or endure more than we will to accom- 
plish that end. Wc are, as we ever have been, the devot- 
eil friends of the Constitution and the Union, and we have 
no sympathies with the enemies of either. 

Vi. That the arrest, imprisonment, pretended trial, and 
actual banishment of Clement L. Vallandigham. a citizen 
of the State of Ohio, not belonging to the laud or naval 
forces of the United Stales, nor to the militia in actual 
service, by alleged military authority, for no other pre- 
tended crime than that of uttenng words of legitimate 
criticism upon the conduct of the adminisliatiuu in power, 
and of appealing to the ballot-box for a chan^'e of policy 
— said arrest and military trial taking pl.ici- where the 
courts of law .are open and unobstructed, and fir no act 
done within the sphere of active military operations in car- 
rying on the war — we reg.-ird as upalpable viohuion of the 
following provision of the Constitution of the United 
Stales: 

1. "Congress shall make no law * * * v 
abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the 
right of the people peacealily to assemble, aud to petitioii 
the government for a redress of grievances." 

2. "The right of the people to be secure iu tbeir iiersons, 
houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable .searches 
and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall 
issue, but ujion probable cau-e, suppoi ted by wuh or atfir- 



210 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



mation, ami particularly describing the place to be search- 
ed and the persons or things to he seized." 

•3. "Xo person shall he held to answer for a capital or 
otherwise infamous crime unlesB on a presentment or in- 
dictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in tlie 
land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual ser- 
vice in time of war or public danger." 

4. "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy 
the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury 
of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been 
committed, which district shall have been previously as- 
certained by law." 

And we furtliermore denounce said arrest, 
trial and banislnnent, as a direct insult offered 
to the sovereignty of the people of Ohio, by 
■whose organic law it is declared that no person 
shall be transported out of the state for any 
offence committed within the same. 

16. That Clement L. Vallandigham was, at the time of 
his arrest, a promiiieut candidate for nomination by the 
Democratic party of Ohio, for the office of governor of the 
state; thtit the Democratic party was fully competent to 
decide whether he is a tit man for that nomination, and 
that the attempt to deprive thorn of that right, by his ar- 
rest and banishment, was an unmerited imputation upon 
their intelligence aud loyalty, as well as a violation of the 
Constitution. 

17. That we lespectfully, but most earnestly, call upon 
the President of the United States to restore Clement L. 
Yallandigham tohis home in Ohio, and that a commitvco 
ot one from each congressional district of the state, to bo 
selected by the presiding officer of this convention, is here- 
by appointed to present this application to the President. 

The undersigned, in the discharge of the 
duty assigned them, do not think it necessary 
to reiterate the facts connected with the arrest 
trial, and banishment of Mr. Yallandigham — 
they are well known to the President, and are 
of public history— nor to enlarge upon the pos- 
itions taken by the convention, nor to recapit- 
ulate the constitutional provisions which it is 
believed have been contravened; they have been 
stated at length, and with clearness in the res- 
olutions which have been recited. The under- 
signed content themselves with brief reference 
to other suggestions pertinent to the subject. 

They do not call upon your excellency as 
suppliants, praying the revocation of the order 
banishing i\Ir. Yallandigham, as a favor; but, 
but by the authority of a convention represent- 
ing a majority of the citizens of the State of 
Ohio, they respectfully ask it as a riglit due to 
an American citizen, in whose personal injury 
the sovereignty and dignity of the people of 
Ohio, as a free state, have been ofi"euded. — 
And this duty they perform the ^ore •ordially 
from the consideration, that, at a time of great 
national emergency, pregnant with danger to 
our Federal Union, it is all important that the 
true friends of the Constitution and the Union, 
however they may differ as to the mode of ad- 
ministering the government, and the measures 
most likely to be successful in the maintenance 
of the Constitution and the restoration of the 
Union, should not be thrown into hostile con- 
flict with each other. 

The arrest, unusual trial and banishruent of 
Mr. Yallandigham, have created wide-spread 
and alarming disaffection among the people of 
the state, not only endangering the hai'mony of 
the friends of the Constitution aud the Union, 
and tending to disturb the peace and tranquili- 
ty of the state, but also impairing that confi- 



dence in the fidelity of your administration to 
the great landmarks of free government, es- 
sential to a peaceful and successful enforce- 
ment of the laws in Ohio. 

You are reported to have used, in a public 
communication on this subject, the following 
language: 

'• it gave me pain when I learned that Mr. ViUandig- 
ham had been arrested — that is, I was pained that there 
should have seemed to be a necessity for arresting him; 
and that it will afford me great jdeasurc t.) discharge him, 
so soon as 1 can by any means believe the public safety 
will not sutler by it." 

The undersigned assure your excellency, 
from our personal knowledge of the feelings of 
the people of Ohio, that the public safety will 
be far more endangered by continuing Mr. 
Yallandigham in exile than by releasing him. 
It may be true, that persons differing from him 
in political views may be found in Ohio, and 
elsewhere, who will express a different opin- 
ion. But they are certainly mistaken. 

Mr. Yallandigham may differ with the Pres- 
ident, and even with some of his own political 
party, as to the true and most effectual means 
of maintaining the Constitution and restoring 
the Union: but this difference of opinion does 
not prove him to be unfaithful to his duties as 
an American citizen. If a man devotedly at- 
tached to the Constitution and the Union con- 
scientiously believes that from the inherent 
nature of the federal compact the war, in the 
present condition of things in this country, can- 
not be used as a means of restoring the Union; 
or that a war to subjugate a part of the states, 
or a war to revolutionize the social system in a 
part of the states, could not restore, but would 
inevitably result in the final destruction of both 
the Constitution and the Union, is he not to be 
allowed the right of an American citizen to ap- 
peal to the judgment of the people for a change 
of policy by the constitutional remedy of the 
ballot-box? 

During the war with Mexico many of the po- 
litical opponents of the administration then in 
power thought it their duty to oppose and de- 
nounce the war, and to urge before the people 
of the country that it was unjust, and prose- 
cuted for unholy purposes. With equal rea- 
son it might have been said of them that their 
discussions before the people were calculated 
to discourage enlistments, "to prevent the 
raising of troops," and to induce desertions 
from the army and leave the government with- 
out an adequate military force to carry on the 
war. If the freedom of speech and of the 
press are to be suspended in time of war, then 
the essential element of popular government 
to effect a change of policy in the constitution- 
al mode is at an end. The freedom of speech 
and of the press is indispensable, and neces- 
sarily incident to the nature of popular gov- 
ernment itself. If any inconvenience or evils 
arise from its exercise they are unavoidable. _ 

On this subject you are reported to have said 
further: 

"It is asserted, in substance, that Mr. A'allandigham 
was, by a military commander, seized ami tried 'for no 
ether reas-jn than words addressed to a public meeting in 



SCRAPS FEO.M MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



211 



criticism of the course of the njministration, and in ccn- 
demnatiou of tbe military order of the general.' Now, if 
there be no mistake about this, if there was no other reas- 
on for the arrest, then 1 concede that the arrest was wrong. 
But the arrest, I understand, was made for. a very difter- 
ent reason. Mr. Yallandigluim avows hia hostility to the 
war on the part of the Union; and his arrest was made be- 
cause he was laboring:, with some eti'ect, to prevent the 
raising of troops, to eutom-age desert iona from the army, 
and to leave the rebellion without an adequate military 
force to suppress it. He was not arrested because he was 
damaging the political prospects of the administration, or 
the personal interest of the commanding general, but be- 
cause ho was damaging the armj-, upon the existence and 
vigor of which the life of the nation depends. lie was 
warring upon the military, and this gave the military con- 
stitutional jurisdiction to lay hands upon him. If Mr. 
'Vallandigham was not damaging the military power of 
the country, then his arrest was made on mistake of facts, 
which I would be glad to correct on reasonable satisfactory 
evidence." 

In answer to this, permit the undersigned to 
say, first, that neither the charge, nor the 
specifications in support of the charge, on which 
Mr. Vallandigham was tried, impute to him 
the act of laboring either to prevent the rais- 
ing of troops, or to encourage desertion from 
the army; secondly, that no evidence on the 
trial was offered with a view to support, or even 
tended to support, any such charge. In what 
instance, and by what act, did he either dis- 
courage enlistments or encourage desertions 
from the army? Whois the man who was discour- 
aged from enlisting, and who encouraged to 
desert by any act of Mr. Vallandigham? If it 
be assumed that perchance some person might 
have been discouraged from enlisting, or that 
some person might have been encouraged to 
desert, on account of hearing Mr. Vallandig- 
ham's views as to the policy of the war as a 
means of restoring the Union, would that have 
laid the foundation for his conviction and ban- 
ishment? 

If so, upon the same grounds, every politi- 
cal opponent of the Mexican war might have 
been convicted and banished from the country. 
"When gentlemen of high standing and exten- 
sive influence, including your excellency, op- 
posed, in the discussions before the people, 
the policy of the Mexican war, were they 
"warring upon the military," and did this 
"give the military constitutional jurisdiction 
to lay hands upon" them? And, finally, the 
charge, in the specifications upon which Mr. 
Vallandigham was tried, entitled him to a trial 
before the civil tribunals, according to the 
express provisions of the late acts of Congress, 
approved by yourself, July 17, 1S62, and March 
3, 1863, which were manifestly designed to 
supercede all necessity or pretext for arbitrary 
military arrests. 

The undersigned are unable to agree with 
you in the opinion you have expressed, that 
the Constitution is different in time of insur- 
rection or invasion from what it is in time of 
peace and public security. The Constitution 
provides for no limitation upon, or exceptions 
to, the guarantees of personal liberty, except 
as to the writ of habeas corpus. Has the Pres- 
ident, at the time of invasion or insurrection, 
the right to engraft limitations or exceptions 
upon these constitutional guarantees, when- 



ever, in his judgment, the public safety re- 
quires it? 

True it is, the article of the constitution 
which defines the various powers delegated to 
Congress, declares that "'the privilege of the 
writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended 
unless where, in cases of rebellion or invasion 
the public safety may require it." But this 
qualification or limitation upon this restriction 
upon the powers of Conores? has no reference 
to, or connection with, the other constitutional 
guarantees of public liberty. Expunge from 
the Constitution this limitation upon the power 
of Congress to suspend the writ of habeas cor- 
pus, and yet the the other guarantees of per- 
sonal liberty would remain unchanged. 

Although a man might not have a constitu- 
tional right to have an immediate investigation 
made as to the legality of his arrest upon 
habeas corpus, yet his "'right to a speedy and 
public trial by an impartial jury of the state 
and district wherein the crime shall have been 
committed," will not be altered; neither will 
his right to the exemption from "cruel and un- 
usual punishments:" nor his right to be secure 
in his person, houses, papers, and effects, 
against unreasonable seizures and searches; 
nor his right not to be deprived of life, liberty, 
or property, without due process of law; nor 
his right not to be held to answer for a capital 
or otherwise infamous offense, unless on pre- 
sentment or indictment of a grand jury, be in 
any wise changed. And certainly the restric- 
tion upon the power of Congress to suspend 
the writ of habeas corpus, in time of insurrec- 
tion or invasion, could not affect the guarantee 
that the freedom of speech and of the press 
shall not be abridged. 

It is sometimes urged that the proceedings in 
the civil tribunals are too tardy and ineffective 
for cases arising in times of insurrection or in- 
vasion. It is a full reply to this to say, that 
arrests by civil process may be equally as ex- 
peditious and effective as arrests bv military 
orders. True, a summary trial and punish- 
ment are not allowed in the civil courts. But 
if the offender be under arrest and imprisoned, 
and not entitled to discharge on writ of habeas 
corpus, before trial, what more can be required 
for the purposes of the government? The idea 
that all the constitutional guarantees of person- 
al liberty are suspended throughout the coun- 
try at a time of insurrection or invasion in any 
part of it, places us upon a sea of uncertainty, 
and subjects the life, liberty and property of 
eveiy citizen to the mere will of a military com- 
mander, or what he 7nau say that he considers 
the public safetj^ requires. Does your Excel- 
lency wish to have it understood that you hold 
that the rights of every man thi'oughout this 
vast country, in time of invasion or insurrec- 
ion, are subject to be a/mulled u-he?icver you 
may say that you consider the public safety re- 
quires it f 

You are further reported as having said, that 
the constitutional guarantees of personal lib- 
erty have 

"Xo application to the present case we h",ve in hand, 



212 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



Ijecause the rin-csts connilainerl of n-ei-enot mnile for trea- 
son — that is. not for the treason ilelinod in the Constitu- 
tion, and upon the conviction of which the punishment is 
death — nor yet were they made to hold persons to answer 
for capital or otherwise infamous crime; nor were the pro- 
ceedings following in any constitutional or legal sense 
'criminal prosecutions.' The arrests were made on totally 
different grounds, and the proceedings following accorded 
with the grounds of the arre.^ts," <ic. 

The conclusion to be drawn from this posi- 
tion of your Excellency is, that where a man is 
liable to "a criminal prosecution," or is charg- 
ed with a crime known to the laws of the land, 
he is clothed with all the constitutional guar- 
antees for his safety and security from wrong 
and injustice ; but that, where he is not liable 
to a ''criminal prosecution," or charged with 
any crime known to the laws, if the President 
or any military commander shall say that he 
considers that the public safety requires it, 
this man may be put outside of the pale of the 
constitutional guarantees, and arrested with- 
out charge of crime, imprisoned without know- 
ing what for, and any length of time, or be 
tried before a court-martial and sentenced to 
any kind of punishmeuD, unknown to the land, 
which the President or the military commander 
may see proper to impose- 

Did the Constitution intend to throw the 
shield of its securities around the man liable 
to be charged with treason as defined by it. 
and yet leave the man, not liable to any such 
charge, unprotected by the safeguards of per- 
sonal liberty and personal security? Can a 
man not iu the r:.,ilitary or naval service, nor 
within the field of the operations of the army, 
be arrested and imprisoned without any law of 
the land to authorize it? Can a man thus, in 
civil life, be punished without any law defining 
the offense and prescribing the punishment? — 
If the President or a court martial may pre- 
scribe one kind of punishment unauthorized by 
law, why not any other kind? Banishment is 
an unusual punishment, and unknown to our 
laws If the President has the right to pre- 
scribe the punishment of banishment, why not 
that of death and confiscation of property? If 
the President has the right to change the pun- 
ishment prescribed by the court-martial, from 
imprisonment to banishment, why not from 
imprisonment to torture upon the rack, or ex- 
ecution upon the gibbet? 

If an imlefinable kind of constructive treason 
is to be introduced and engrafted upon the con- 
stitution, unknown to the laws of the land, and 
subject to the will of the President whenever 
an insurrection or invasion shall occur in any 
part of this vast country, what safety or secur- 
ity will be left for the liberties of the people? 
The constructive treasons that gave the friends 
of freedom so many years of toil and trouble 
in England, were inconsiderable compared to 
this. The precedents which you make will be- 
come a part of the Constitution for your suc- 
cessors, if sanctioned and acquiesced in by the 
people now. 

The people of Ohio are willing to co-operate 
zealously with you in every efibrt, warranted 
by the Constitution, to restore the Union of the 
states: but thev cannot consent to abandon 



those fundamental principles of civil liberty 
which are essential to their existence as a free 
people. 

In their name, we ask that, by a revocation 
of the order of his banishment, Mr. Vallan- 
digham may be restored to the enjoyment of 
those rights of which they believe he has been 
unconstitutionally deprived. 

We have the honor to be, respectfully, yours, Ac, 

M. lUJlCIIAUD, Chairman, 19th Dist. 

D.A.V11) A. nOUK, Sec'v 3.1 Dist. 

GEO. BLISS. 14th Dist. 

T. W. BARTLEY, Sth Dist. 

^y. 3. GORDON, ISth Dist. 

JOHN O'NEILL, l:jth Dist. 

C. A. WHITE, fith Dist. 

W. E. FINCK, 12th Dist. 

ALEXANDER LONG, 2d Di.st. 

J. W. WHITE, 16th Dist. 

JAS. R. MORRIS, 15th Dist. 

GEO. S. CONVERSE, Tth Dist. 

WARREN P. NOBLE, 9th Di.st. 

GEO. U. PENDLETON. 1st Dist. 

W. A. IIUTCHINS, 11th Dist. 

ABNEK L. BACIiU.S, 10th Dist 

J. F. MCKINNEV, 4th Dist. 

F. 0. LE BLOND, 5th Dist. 

LOUIS SCHAFFER, 17th Dist. 

The Hep 1 1/. 

W.iSHiNOTON, D. C, June 20, 1SC3. 

Messrs. M. Burchard, David A. Uouck, George Bliss, T. 
W. Bartlsv, W. J. Gordon, John O'Neill, C. A. White, 
W. E. Fink, Alexander JiOng, J. W. White, George H. 
Pendleton, George L. Converse, UanzaP. Noble, James 
R. Morris, W. A. Ilutchins, Ahner L. Rackus, J, F. 
McKinney, P. C. LeBlond, Louis Schafer. 

Gentlemen: The resolutions of the Ohio 
Democratic State Convention, which you pre- 
sent me, together with your introductory and 
dosing remarks, being in position and argu- 
ment mainly the same as the resolutions of the 
Democratic meeting at Albany, New York, I 
refer you to my response to the latter as meet- 
ing most of the points in the former. This re- 
sponse you evidently used in preparing your 
remarks, and I desire no more than that it be 
used with accuracy. In a single reading of 
your remarks, I only discovered one inaccuracy 
in matter which I suppose you took from that 
paper. It is where you say: 

"The undersigned are unable to agree with you in the 
opinion you have e.xpressed that the Constitution is differ- 
ent in time of insurrection »r invasion from what it ia iu 
time of peace and public security." 

A recurrence to the paper will show you that 
I have not expressed the opinion you suppose. 
I expressed the opinion that the Constitution 
is different i7i its applicatioii in cases of rebel- 
lion or invasion, involving the public safety, 
from what it is in times of profound peace and 
public security; and this opinion I adhere to, 
simply because by the Constitution itself things 
may be done in the one case which may not be 
done in the other. 

I dislike to waste a word on a merely per- 
sonal point, but I must respectfully assure you 
that you will find yourselves at fault should 
you ever seek for evidence to prove your as- 
sumption that I "'opposed in discussion before 
the people the policy of the Mexican war." 

You say, 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



213 



"Expunge from the Constitution tliis limitation upon 
the power of Congress to suspend till" writ of habeas cor - 
pus, and yet tbe other guarautees of personal liberty 
would remain unchanged." 

Doubtless if this clause of the Constitution, 
improperly called as I think a limitation upon 
the power of Congress, were expunged the 
other guarantees would remain the same; but 
the question is, not how those guarantees 
would stand, with that clause out of the Con- 
stitution, but how they stanu with that clause 
remaining in it, in cases of rebellion or inva- 
sion, involving the public safety. If tfle liber- 
ty could be indulged of expunging that clause, 
letter and spirit, I really think the constitu- 
tional argument would be with you. My gen- 
eral view on this question was stated in the 
Albany response, and hence I do not state it 
now. I only add that, as seems to me, the 
benefit of the writ of habeas corj'us is the great 
means through which the guarantees of per- 
sonal liberty are conserved and made available 
in the last resort; and corroborative of this 
view, is the f;ict, that Mr. Vallandigham in the 
very case in question, under the advice of able 
lawyers, saw not where else to go but to the 
habeas coiyiis. But by the Constitution the 
benefit of the writ of habeas corpus itself may 
be suspended when in cases of rebellion or in- 
vasion the public safety may require it. 

You ask in substance, whether I really claim 
that I may override all the guaranteed rights 
of individuals, on the plea of conserving the 
public safety — when I may choose to say the 
public safety requires it. This question, di- 
vested of the phraseology calculated to repre- 
sent me as struggling for arbitrary personal 
prerogative, is either simply a question loho 
shall decide, or an affirmation that nobody shall 
decid, what the public safety does requir:; in 
cases of rebellion or invasion. The Constitu- 
tion contemplates the question as likely to oc- 
cur for decision, but it does not expressly de- 
clare who is to decide it. By necessary impli- 
cation, when rebellion or invasion comes., the 
decision is to be made, from time to time; and 
I think the man whom, for the time, the peo- 
ple have, under the Constitution, made the 
commander-in-chief of their army and navy, is 
the man who holds the power and bears the re- 
sponsibility of making it. If he uses the power 
justly, the same people will probably justify 
him; if he abuses it, he is in their hands to be 
dealt with by all the modes they have reserved 
to themselves in the Constitution- [But how 
can this be done when free discussion is arbi- 
trarily forbidden?] 

The earnestness with which you insist that 
persons can only in times of rebellion be law- 
fully dealt with, in accordance with the rules 
for ci-iminal trials and punishments in times of 
peace, induces me to add a word to what I said 
on that point in the Albany response. You 
claim that men may, if they choose, embarrass 
those whose duty it is to combat a giant rebel- 
lion, and then be dealt with only in turn as if 
there were no rebellion. The Constitution 
itself rejects this view. The military arrests 
and detentions which have been made, in- 



cluding those of Mr. Vallandigham, -^^ ' ' '•h are 
not dififerent in principle from the o.^' . . have 
been for prevention, a.u.(l noti'or punishuunt — 
as injunctions to stay injury — as proceedings 
to keep the peace — and hence, like proceed- 
ings in such cases, and for like reasons, they 
have not been accompanied with indictments, 
or trials by juries, nor, in a single case, by any 
punishment whatever beyond what is purely 
incidental to the prevention. The original 
sentence of imprisonment in Mr. Vallandig- 
ham's case was to prevent injury to the milita- 
ry service only, and the modification of it was 
made as a less disagreeable mode to him of se- 
curing the same prevention. 

I am unable to perceive an insult to Ohio in 
the case of Mr. Vallandigham. Quite surely, 
nothing of the sort was or is intended. I was 
wholly unaware that Mr. Vallandigham was, at 
the time of his arrest, a candidate for the Dem- 
ocratic nomination for governor, until so in- 
formed by your reading' to me resolutions of 
the convention. I am grateful to the State of 
Ohio for many things, especially for the brave 
soldiers and officers she has given in the pres- 
ent national trial to the armies of the Union. 

You claim, as I understand, that, according 
to my own position in the Albany response, Mr. 
Vallandigham should be released; and this be- 
cause, as you claim, he has not damaged the 
miatary service by discouraging enlistments, 
encouraging desertions, or otherwise; and that 
if he had, he should have been turned 
over to the civil authorities under recent acts 
of Congress. I certainly do not knoic that Mr. 
Vallandigham has specifically, and by direct 
language, advised against enlistments, and in 
favor of.desertion and resistance todraftirg. 

We all know that combinations, armed in 
some instances, to resist the arrest of desert- 
ers, began several months ago ; that more re- 
cently the like has appeared in resistance to 
the enrollment preparatory to a draft ; and 
that quite a number of asassinations have oc- 
curred from the same animus. These had to 
be met by military force, and this again has 
led to bloodshed and death. And now, under 
a sense of responsibility more weighty and en- 
during than any which is merely oSicial, I 
solemnly declare my belief that this hindrance 
of the military, including maiming and mur- 
der, is due to the course in which Mr. Vallan- 
digham has been engaged, in a greater degree 
than to any other cause ; nnd is due to him 
personally in a greater degree than to any 
other one man. 

These things have been notorious, known to 
all, and, of course, known to Mr. Vallandig- 
ham. Perhaps I would not be wrong to say 
they originated with his especial friends and 
adherents. With perfect knowledge of them, 
he has frequently, if not constantly, made 
sneeches in Congress and before public assem- 
blies; and if it can be shown that with these 
things staring him in the face he has ever ut- 
tered a word of rebuke or counsel against them, 
it will be a fiict greatly in his favor with me, 
and one of which, as yet. I am totally ignor- 
ant. When it is known that the whole burden 



214 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



of his speeclies has been to stir up men u^rain^t 
the prosecution of the war. and tint in the 
midst of resistance to it he has not been known 
in anj instance to counsel against such resist- 
ance, it is next to impossible to repel the infer- 
ence, that he has counseled direcrlv in favor 
of it. 

"Wi'-h all this before their eyes, the conren- 
tion you represent have nominated Mr. Val- 
landigham for governor of Ohio; and both they 
and you have declared the purpose to sustain 
the national Union by all constitutional meaus- 
But of course they and you, in common, re- 
serve to yourselves to decide what are consti- 
tutional means, and, unlike the Albany meet- 
in, you omit to state or intimate that in 3 our 
opinion an army is a constitutional means of 
saving the Union against a rebellion, or even 
to intimate that you are conscious of an exist- 
ing rebellion being in progress with the avow- 
ed object of destroying that very Union. At 
the same time your nominee for governor, in 
•whose behalf you appeal, is known to you and 
to the world to declare against the use of an 
army to suppress the rebellion. Your own atti- 
tude, therefore, encourages desertion, resist- 
ance to the draft and like, because it teaches 
those who incline to desert and to escape the 
draft to believe it is your purpose to protect 
them, and to hope that you will become strong 
enough to do so. 

After a short personal intercourse with you, 
gentlemen of ihe committee, I cannot say I 
think you desire this effect to follow your atti- 
tude, but I assure you that both iriends and 
enemies of the Union look upon it in this light. 
It is a substantial hope, and by consequence a 
real strength to the enemy. It is a false hope 
and one which you would willingly dispel. I 
will make the way exceedingly easy. I send 
you duplicates of this letter, in order that you 
or a majority of you maj', if you choose, indorse 
your names upon one of them, and return it 
thus endorsed to me. with the understanding 
that those signiug are thereby committed to the 
following propositions, and to nothing else: 

1. That there is a rebellion now in the United State?, 
the object ami tendency of which is to destroy the nation- 
al Union, and that, in your opinion an army and navy are 
constitutional means for suppressing that rebellion. 

2. That no one of you will do anything which, in his 
own judgment, will tend to hinder the increase or favor 
the decrease, or lessen the efficiency of the army or navy 
while engaged in the effort to suppress that rebellion, and 

3. That each of you will, in his sphere, do all he can to 
have the officers, soldiers and seamen of the army and 
navy, while engaged in the etfort to suppress the rebel- 
lion, paid, fed, clad, and otherwise well-provided and sup- 
ported. 

And with the further understanding that, 
upon receiving the letter and names thus in- 
dorsed, I will cause them to be published, 
which publication shall be, within itself, a re- 
Tocation of the order in relation to Mr. Val- 
landigham. 

It will not escape observation that I consent 
to the release of Mr. Valiandiaham upon terms 
not embracing any pledge from him or from 
others, as to what he will or will not do. I do 
this because he is not present to speak for him- 
self, or to authorize others to speak for him, 



and hence, I shall expect, that on returning, 
he would not put himself practically in antag- 
onism with the position of his friends. But I 
do it chiefly because I thereby prevail on every 
influential gentleman of Ohio to so define their 
position as to be of immense value to the army 
— thus more than compensating for the conse- 
quences of any mistake in allowing Mr. Yal- 
landigham to return, so that on the whole the 
public safety will not have suffered by it. Still 
in regard to Mr Vallandigham and all others, 
I must hereafter, as heretofore, do so much as 
the pu^^lic safety may seem to require. I have 
the honor to be respectfully yours, etc., 

A. LINCOLN. 

The Rejoinder. 

New York City, July 1, 1SG.3. 
To His Excellency the President of the United States: 

Sir: — Your answer to the application of the 
undersigned for a revocation of the order of 
banishment of Clement L. Vallandigham, re- 
quires a rej"ly, which they proceed, with as 
little delay as practicable, to make. 

They are not able to appreciate the force of 
the distinction you make between the Ccmsti- 
tution and the application of the Constitution, 
whereby you assume that powers are delegated 
to the President at the time of invasion or in- 
surrection in derogation of the plain language 
of the Constitution. The inherent provisions 
of the Constitution remaining the same in time 
of insurrection or invasion as in time of peace, 
the President can have no more right to disre- 
gard their positive and imperative require- 
ments at the former time than at the latter. — 
Because some things maybe done by the terms 
of the Constitution at the time of invasion or 
insurrection which would not be required by 
the occasion in time of peace, you assume that 
anything whatever, even though not expressed 
by the Constitution, may be done on the occa- 
sion of insurrection or invasion which the 
President may choose to say is required by the 
public safety. In plainer terms, because the 
writ of habeas corpus may be suspended at the 
time of invasion or insurrection, you infer 
that all other provisions of the Constitution 
having in view the protection of the life, lib- 
erty and i^roperty of the citizen may be in like 
manner su.«f>ended. 

The provision relating to the writ of habeas 
corpus, being contained in the first article of 
the Constitution, the purpose of which is to de- 
fine the powers delegated to Congress, has no 
connection in language with the declaration of 
rights, as guarantees of personal liberty, con- 
tained in the additional and amendatory arti- 
cles. And inasmuch as the provision relating 
to habeas corpus expressly provides for its sus- 
pension, and the other provisions alluded to do 
not provide for any such thing, the legal con- 
clusion is. that the suspension of the latter is 
unauthorized. The provision for the writ of 
habeas corpus is merely intended to furnish a 
summary remedy, and not the means whereby 
personal security is conserved, in the final re- 
sort; while the other provisions are guarantees 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



215 



of pei'sonal rights, the suspension of which 
puts an cud to all jjretensc of free government. 
It is true Mr. Vallandigham applied for a writ 
of habeas corpus as a summary remedy against 
oppression. But the denial of this did not take 
away his right to a speedy public trial by an 
impartial jury, or deprive him of his other 
rights as an American citizen. Your assump- 
tion of the right to suspend all the constitu- 
tional guarantees of personal liberty, and even 
of the freedom of speech and of the press, be- 
cause the summary r2medy of habeas corpus 
may be suspended, is at once startling and 
alarming to all persons desirous of preserving 
free government in this country. 

The inquiry of the undersigned; whether 

" you hol'I that the rights of every man throughout this 
vast country, in time of invasion or insurrection, are sub- 
ject to be annulled, whenever yuu may say that the pub- 
lic safety requires it," 

was a plain question, undisguised by circum- 
locution, and intended simply to elicit infor- 
mation. Your affirmative answer to this 
question throws a shade upon the fondest an- 
ticipations of the framers of the Constitution, 
who flattered themselves that they had provid- 
ed safeguards against the dangers which have 
ever beset and overthrown free governments in 
other ages and countries. Your answer is not 
to be disguised by the phraseology that the 
question 

"is simply a question who .shall decide, or an affirmation 
that nobody shall decide what the public safety doea re- 
quire in cases of rebellion or invasion." 

Our government was designed to be a gov- 
ernment of laiv^ settled and defined^ and not of 
the arbitrary will of a single man. As a safe- 
guard, the powers granted were divided, and 
delegated to the legislative, executive, and ju- 
dicial branches of the government, and each 
made co-ordinate with the others, and supreme 
within its sphere, and thus a mutual check 
upon each other, in case of abuse of power. 

It has been the boast of the American people 
that they had a written Constitution^ not only 
expressly defining^ but also limiting the powers 
of the government, any providing etfectual safe- 
guards for personal liberty, security, and pro- 
l^erty. And to make the matter more positive 
and explicit, it was provided by the amendatory 
articles, nine and ten, that "the enumeration 
in the Constitution of certain rights shall not bo 
construed to deny ov disparage others retained 
by the people," and that "the powers not dele- 
gated to the United States by the Constitution, 
uor prohibited by it to the stutes, or reserved to 
the states respectively or to the people.''' With 
this care and precaution on the part of our fore 
fathers who framed our institutions, it was not 
to be expected that, at so early a day as this, a 
claim of the Presideht to arbitrary power, lim- 
ited only by his conception of the requirements 
of the public safety, would have been asserted. 

In derogation of the constitutional provis- 
ions making the President strictly an executive 
officer, and vesting all the delegated legislative 
power in Congress, your position, as we under- 
stand it, would make your ivill the rule of uct- 



ion, and your declarations of the requirements 
of the public safety the law of the land. Our 
inquiry was not. therefore, 

"simply a question who shall decide, or the affirmation 
that nobody shall decide what the public safety requires."' 

Our government is a government of laio, and 
it is the law-making power which ascertains 
what the public safety requires, and prescribes 
the rule of action; and the duty of the Presi- 
dent is simply to execute the laws thus enacted 
and not to make or annul laws. If any exigen- 
cy shall arise, the President has the power to 
convene Congress at any time, to provide for it; 
so that the plea of necessity furnishes no reas- 
onable pretext for any assumption of legislative 
power. 

For a moment contemplate the consequences 
of such a claim to power. Not only would the 
dominion of the President be absolute over the 
rights of individuals, but equally so over the 
other departments of the government. If he 
should claim that the public safety required it, 
he could arrest and imprison a judge for the 
conscientious discharge of his duties, pai-alyze 
the judicial power, or supercede it, by the 
substitution of courts-martial, subject to his 
own 2cill, throughout the whole country. If any 
one of the states, even far removed from the 
rebellion, should not sustain his plan for pros- 
ecuting the war, he could, on this plea of the 
public safety, annul and set at defiance the 
state laws and authorities, arrest and imprison 
the governor of the state, or the members of 
the Legislature, while in the faithful discharge 
of their duties, or he could absolutely control 
the action, either of Congress or of the Su- 
preme Court, by arresting and imprisoning its 
members; and, upon the same ground, he could 
suspend the elective franchise, postpone the 
elections, and declare the pei-petuity of his 
high prerogative. And neither the power of 
impeachment, nor the elections of the people, 
could be made available against such concen- 
tration of power. 

Surely it is not necessary to subvert fx-ee 
government in this country in order to put 
down the rebellion ; and it cannot be done un- 
der the pretense of putting down the rebellion. 
Indeed, it is plain that your administration 
has been weakened, gresitly weakened, by the 
assumption of power not delegated in the Con- 
stitution. 

In your answer you say to us : 

'You claim that men may, if they choose, eniban'as 
those whose duty it is to combat a giant rebellion, and 
then be dealt with in turn only as if there were no rebel- 
lion." 

You will find yourself at fault if you will 
search our communication to you, for any such 
idea. The undersigned believe that the Con- 
stitution and Laws of the land, properly ad- 
ministered, furnish ample power to put down 
an insurrection, without the assumption of 
powers not granted. And if existing legisla- 
tion be inadequate, it is the duty of Congress 
to consider what futher legislation is neces- 
sary, and to make suitable provision by law. 

You claim that the military arrests made by 



216 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



your administration are merely preventive rem- 
edies "as injunctions to stay injury, or pro- 
ceedings to keep the peace, and not for pun- 
ishmentV The ordinary preventive remedies 
alluded to are authorized by established law, 
but the preventive proceedings you institute 
have their authority merely in the will of the 
executive or that of officers subordinate to his 
authority. And in this proceeding a discretion 
seems to be exercised as to whether the prison- 
er shall be allowed a trial; or even be permit- 
ted to know the nature of the complaint al- 
leged against him, or the name of his accuser. 
If the proceeding be merely preventive, why 
not allow the prisioner the benefit of a bond to 
keep the peace? But if no offense has been 
committed, why was Mr. Vallandigham tried, 
convicted and sentenced by a court-martial? 
And why the actual punishment^ by imprison- 
ment or banishment, without the opportunity 
of obtaining his liberty in the mode usual in 
preventive remedies, and yet say, it is not for 
punishment? 

You still place Mr. Vallandigham' s convic- 
tion and banishment upon the ground that he 
had damaged the military service by discourag- 
ing enlistments and encouraging desertions, 
&c.: and yet you have not even pretended to 
controvert our position, that he was not charg- 
ed with, tried or convicted for any such offense 
before the court-martial. 

In answer to our position that Mr. Vallan- 
digham was entitled to a trial in the civil tri- 
bunals, by virtue of the late acts of Congress, 
you say: 

" I certivicly do not know that Mr. Vallandigham has 
specificallj' and by direct lanjuago advised against en- 
listments and in favor of desertions and resistance to draft- 
ing," (tc. 

And yet, in a subsequent part of your an- 
swer, after speaking of certain disturbances 
which are alleged to have occurred in resist- 
ance of the arrest of deserters, and of the en- 
rollment preparatory to the draft, and which 
you attribute mainly to the course Mr. Vallan- 
digham has pursued, you say, that he has made 
speeches against the war in the midst of re- 
sistance to it, that "he has never been known, 
in any instance, to counsel against such re- 
sistance," and that "it is next to impossible 
ty repel the inference that he has counseled 
directly in favor of it " Permit the under- 
signed to say, that your information is 
most grievously at fault. The undersigned 
have been in the habit of hearing Mr. 
Vallandigham speak before popular assem- 
blages, and they appeal with confidence to every 
truthful person who has ever heard him, for 
the accuracy of the declaration that he has 
never made a speech before the people of Ohio 
in which he has not counseled submission and 
obedience to the laws and the Constitution, and 
advised the peaceful remedies of the judicial 
tribunals and of the ballot-box for the redress 
of grievances, and for the evils which afflict our 
bleeding and suffering country. And, were it 
not foreign to the purposes of this communica- 
tion, we would undertake to establish, to the 



satisfaction of any candid person, that the dis- 
turbances among the people to which you al- 
lude, in opposition to the arrest of deserters and 
the draft, have been occasioned mainly by the 
measures, policy and conduct of your adminis- 
tration, and the course of its political 
friends. But if the circumstantial evidence 
exists, to which you allude, which makes, 

"It is next to lmpos.iible to repel the infererxe that Mr. 
Vallandigham has counseled directly in favor" 

of this resistance, and that the same has been 
mainly attributable to his conduct, why was 
he not turned over to the civil authorities to be 
tried under the late acts of Congress? If there 
be any foundation in fact for your statements 
implicating him in resistance to the constituted 
authorities, he is liable to such prosecution. 
And we now demand, as a mere act of justice 
to him, an investigation of this matter before a 
jury of his country; and respectfully insist that 
fairness requires, ether that you retract these 
charges which you make against him, or that 
you revoke your order of banishment and allow 
him the opportunity of an investigation before 
an impartial jury. 

The committee do not deem it necessary to 
repel at length the imputation that the atti- 
tude of themselves or of the Democratic party 
in Ohio " encourages desertions, resistance to 
the draft and the like," or tends to the breach 
of any law of the land. Suggestions of that 
kind are not unusual weapons in our ordinary 
political contests. They rise readily in the 
minds of politicians heated with the excite- 
ment of partisan strife. During the two years 
in which the Democratic party of Ohio has 
been constrained to oppose the policy of the 
administration and to stand up in defense of 
the Constitution and of personal rights this 
charge has been repeatedly made. It has fal- 
len harmless, however, at the feet of those 
whom it was intended to injure. The commit- 
tee believe it will do so again. If it were pro- 
per to do so in this paper, they might sug- 
gest that the measures of the administration 
and its changes of policy in the prosecu- 
tion of the war have been the fruitful 
sources of discouraging enlistments and in- 
ducing desertions, and furnish a reason for 
the undeniable fact, that the first call for vol- 
unteers was answered by very many more than 
were demanded, and that the next call for sol- 
diers will probably be responded to by drafted 
men alone. The observation of the President 
in this connection, that neither the convention 
in its resolutions^ nor the committee in its com- 
munication, intimate that they "are conscious 
of an existing rebellion being in progress with 
the avowed object of destroying the Union," 
needs, perhaps, no reply. The Democratic 
party of Ohio has felt so keenly the condition 
of the country, and been so stricken to the 
heart by the misfortunes and sorrows which 
have befallen it, that they hardly deemed it 
necessary by solemn resolution, when their 
very state exhibited everywhere the sad evi- 
dences of war, to remind the President that 
they were aware of its existence. 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



217 



In the conclusion of your communication, 
you propose that, if a majority of our commit- 
tee shall aifis their signatures to a duplicate 
copy of it, ■which you have furnished, they 
shall stand committed to three propositions 
therein at length set forth; that you will pub- 
lish the names thus signed, and that this pub- 
lication shall operate as a revocation of the 
order of banishment. The committee cannot 
refrain from the expression of their surprise, 
that the President should make the fate of Mr. 
Vallandigham depend upon the opinion of this 
committee upon;these propositions. If the ar- 
rest and banishment were legal, and were de- 
served; if the President exercised a power 
clearly delegated, under circumstances which 
warranted its exercise, the order ought not to 
be revoked, merely because the committee hold, 
or express, opinions accordant with those of 
the Presidert. If the arrest and banishmeat 
were not legal, or were not deserved by Mr. 
Vallandigham, then surely he is entitled to an 
immediate and unconditional discharge. 

The people of Ohio were not so deeply 
moved by the action of the President, merely 
because they were concerned for the personal 
safety or convenience of Mr. Vallandigham, 
but because they saw in his arrest and banish- 
ment an attack upon their own personal rights ; 
and they attach value to his discharge chiefly, 
as it will indicate an abandonment of the claim 
to the power of such arrest and banishment. 
However. just the undersigned might regard 
the principles contained in the several propo- 
sitions submitted by the President, or how- 
much-soever they might, under other circum- 
stances, feel inclined to endorse the sentiments 
contained therein, yet they assure him that 
they have not been authorized to enter into any 
bargains, terms, contracts, or conditions with 
the President of the United States to procure 
the release of Mr. Vallandigham. 

The opinions of the undersigned, touching 
the questions involved in these propositions, 
are well known, have been many times publicly 
expressed, are sufficiently manifested in the 
resolutions of the convention which they re- 
present, and they cannot suppose that the Pres- 
ident expects that they will seek the discharge 
of Mr. Vallandigham by a pledge, implying 
not only an imputation upon their own sinceri- 
ty and fidelity as citizens of the United States, 
but also carrying with it by implication a con- 
cession of the legality of his arrest, trial, and 
banishment, against which they, and the con- 
vention they represent, have solemnly protest- 
ed. And while they have asked the revocation 
of the order of banishment not as a favor, but 
as a right, due to the people of Ohio, and with 
\ a view to avoid the possibility of conflict or 
' disturbance of the public tranquility, they do 
not do this, nor does Mr. Vallandigham desire 
,it, at any sacrifice of their dignity or self-re- 
spect. 

The idea that such a pledge as that asked 
,from the undersighed would secure the public 
I safety sufficiently to compensate for any mis- 
take of the President in discharging Mr. Val- 
[landigham is, in their opinion, a mere evasion 
15 



of the grave questions involved in this discus 
sion, and of a direct answer to their demand.— 
And this is made especi;illy apparent by the 
fact that this pledge is asked in a communica 
tion which concludes with an intimation of a 
disposition on the part of the President to re- 
peat the acts complained of. 

The undersigned, therefore, having fully 
discharged the duty enjoined upon them, leave 
the responsibility with the President. 

-M. BIKCIIARD, 10th district, Clwirman. 

D.VVID HOUK, Secretarv, 3d district, -r 

GEO. BLISS, Utli district, 

T. W. BAKTLEY, Sth district, 

W. J. GORDON. IStli district, 

.7X0. O'NEILL, 1.3th di.<trict, 

C. A. WHITE, Cth district, 

W. E. FINCK, 12th district, 

ALEXANDER LONG, 2d dif ccht 

JAS. R. MORRIS, loth district' 

GEO. S. CONVERSE, Tfj^jiatriot 

GEO. II. PENDLETON., l,,t district, 

W. A. UtJTCUINS, i.uii district, 

A. L. BACKUS, 10t>i district 

J. F. McKINNEY,, 4th district, 

J. W. WHITE. xGth district, 

F. C. LEBLONIi, f,ih district, 

LOUIS SCiEUj>J:ER, 17th district, 

WARREN P^ I^OBLE, 9tb district. ..</ 

As showing how teckless the party iii power 
were, and how little regard they paid to the 
law of their own making, we copy the following 
article from that old, substantial and candid 
journal, the N'ational Intelligencer: 
"the law of the case. 

"As much confusion seems to prevail with 
regard to the legal aspects of the arrest, trial 
and conviction of Mr Vallandighom, on the 
charge of giving aid and comfort to the enemy, 
we think it proper, in view of the interest at- 
taching to this question, considered as one of 
law rather than of military caprice, to place 
distinctly before our readers the points on 
which it turns. [Here follows the charge and 
specification, see page 19.3.] 

"It will thus be seen that the charge and the 
specification, even if entirely sustained by the 
evidence, (as to which, in this inquiry, we 
raise no question,) seek to convict Mr. Val- 
landigham, a citizen of Ohio, of ' givin^ aid 
and comfort to the enemy.' ° 

''Now, this ofi'ence has, by the recent legis- 
lation of Congress, been made expressly cog- 
nizable by the Courts of the United States. 
This will appear from the following statute, 
being 

" An Act to Buppreea Insurrection, to punish treason .and 
rebellion, and confiscate the property of rebels, and for 
other purposes," 

approved July 17, 1862, and found in vol. ]2tlj, 
chapter 195, page 589, of the Statutes at Large, 
as printed by order of Congress. We cite the 
the sections relative to this topic, as follows : 

"Sec. 2. And he it fhrlher enacted, That if any person 
shall hereafter incite, set on foot, assist, or engage in any 
rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United 
States, or the laws thereof, or shall give aid or comfort 
thereto, or shall engage in or give aid or comfort to any 
such existing rebellion or insurreotion, and be convicted 
thereof, such person shall be puni8hed,1jy imprisonment for 



218 



FIVE HUxXDRED POLITICAL TEXTJ 



a period not exceeding teu jears, cr by a fine not exceed- 
ing ten thousiuid dollars, and by the liberation of all his 
slaves, if any he have; or by both of siud puuisnients, at 
the discretion of the court. 

"Sec. 3. Jud be it further enacted. That every person 
guilty of eitlior of the offences described in this act shall 
be forever incapable and disqualifieil to bold any office un- 
der th8 United States." 

^•The tribunal to take cognizmce of such 
'Cases and questions distinctly appears from the 
concluding section of this statute, as follows: 

'■Sec. 14. Jnd be it further enacted, That the courts of 
the United States shall have full power to institute pro- 
ceedings, make orders and decrees, issue proi-ess, and do 
all other things necessary to carry this act into efi'ect" 

"This is conclusive as to the jurisdiction of 
the courts of the United States, and of them 
alone, over the offence alleged to have been 
committed by Mr- Vallandigham. 

"But the last Congress did not stop here. As 
if to shut the door against any such proceed- 
ings as those instituted by Gen Burnside, it 
passed an act, approved March 3d, 1863, ex- 
pressly 

■"relating to habeas corpus and regulating judicial pro- 
ceedings in certain cases." 

"The sections of this act relevant to the case 
of Mr. Vallandigham may be found on page 755 
of the volume of the Statutes at Large as just 
printed by order of Congress, and are as fol- 
lows. [See this law on p 109. 

"The reader can easily educe from these pro- 
Tisions the law of the question raised by the 
arrest of Gen. Burnside. They will perceive 
that procceilings under the writ of hubeaa cor- 
jms are to be susj)euded by the courts when- 
ever and wherever the privilege of this writ 
has been suspended by the President, which is 
not the case in the State of Ohio. Judge Leav- 
itt, in refusing to grant the writ sued out in be- 
half of Mr. A'allaudigham, stated that he had 
not seen this law, which was cited in court by 
Mr. Pugh, the attorney of Mr. Yallandighani 
"We infer from this fact that Judge Leavitt does 
not deem it necessary to have a knowledge of 
the laws which it is his sworn duty to adminis- 
ter, or that his means of procuring information 
under this head are more limited than those 
possessed by layman who read journals which 
are authorized to publish the laws of the Uni- 
ted States officially, or who possess a sufficient 
interest in such matters to purchase the volume 
printed by the eminent publishers, Messrs. 
Little & Brown, of Boston, under the authori- 
ty of Congress. His ignorance of the laws 
may be his best excuse for not doing his duty 
tinder them. 

"And when a judge of the United States is 
found ignorant of the legislation of Congress 
on this head, surely Gen. Burnside may be ex- 
cused for not knowing that Congress, by the 
act of July 17th, !86-.', had expressly provided 
for the trial by the courts of the ofiFence he al- 
leges against Mr Vallandigham. Nor is it 
any answer to say, as Gen. B. urges in his 
statement made to the Judge, that 

" we are in a state of civil w.ar, and an emergency is upon 
ui which requires the operations of some power that moves 
mjre quickly than the civil," 



for it was precisely in view of such an "emer- 
gency'' that Congress passed the act of last 
July 17th, already cited, and it was to exclude 
the possibility of the arbitrary detention of 
persons held 

" as prisoners of the United States by order or authority 
of the President of the United States, as state or political 
prisuners, or otherwise than as prisoners of war," 

that Congress passed the act approved on the 
3d of March last, and the sections of which, so 
far as they relate to this case, we have cited 
above. The intervention of a court-martial, 
illegally charged with the trial of a citizen, 
does not alter the nature of the imprisonment 
of Mr. Vallandigham, who, while deprived of 
his liberty, must be regarded i7i law as one 

" imprisoned by the order or authority of the President, 
acting through the Depwrtment of War." 

"If it be true, as is said, that Mr. Vallandig 
ham has been imprisoned in Fort Warren by 
order of Gen. Burnside, confirming the sen- 
tence of the court martial illegally charged 
with the trial of a citizen for an offence made 
cognizable by the courts, it follows that Mr. 
Vallandigham is now held as a "state or po- 
litical prisoner," within the terms of the act 
of March 3d, 1863, and it will therefore be the 
duty, as we doubt not it will be the pleasure, 
of Mr. Secretary Stanton to report the name 
of Mr Vallandigham to the Judge of the 
United States Circuit or District Court which 
has local and legal jurisdiction of the offence 
for which Mr. Vallandigham is now irregular- 
ly detained, that he may be put on trial ac- 
cording to the statutes made and provided for 
precisely such offences as he is alleged to have 
committed. His conviction, under such cir- 
cumstances, would carry with it the sanction 
of law, and as such would receive the assent of 
law abiding citizens, and be a terror to evil 
doers. ' 

PERSONAL AND LEGAL EIGHTS. 

Daniel Webster thus defines the jn-eroga- 
tives of the peopl-e, in times of peace, and in 
times of war: 

"Tt is the ancient and undoubted prerogative 
of this people to canvass public measures and 
the merits of public men. It is a "home-bred 
right' — a fireside privilege. It hath been en- 
joyed in every house, cottage, and cabin in the 
nation. It is not drawn into controversy. It 
is as undoubted as the right of breathing the 
air, or walking on the earth. Belonging to the 
private life as a right, it belongs to public life 
as a duty, and it is the last duty which those 
whose representatives I am shall find me to 
abiindon. Aiming at all times to be courteous 
and temperate in its use, except when the right 
itself is questioned, I shall place myself o« the 
exireme boundary of my right, and bid defiance 
to any arm that would moveme from my ground. 
This high constitutional privilege I shall de- 
fend and exercise within this house and in all 
places; in time of peace, in time of war, and 
at all times. Living I shall assex't it, and 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK 



219 



should I leave no other inheritance to my child- 
ren, by the blessing of God, I will leave them 
the inheritance of free princifles and the ex- 
ample of a manly, independent, and constitu- 
tional defence of them." 

MR. CRITTENDEN ON THIS CASE. 

Mr. Crittenden thus spoke in reference to 

this case: 

"Neither on this nor any other occasion has 
it been my habit to make an outcry and clamor; 
but when usurpations of power are made dan- 
gerous, and when encroachments upon my lib- 
erty and the liberty of my constituents, and 
upon the Constitution intended to guard the 
liberties of us all are made, I would have 
every man have spirit enough to declare his 
opinions and offer his protests. Without this 
freedom of speech there can be no lasting lib- 
erty — the republic cannot exist. If every man 
should close his lips, and not venture even a 
word against violated rights, who could main- 
tain a free Goverument? Nobody. A people 
who cannot discuss the public measures of the 
nation, and apply the necessaiy rebuke to se- 
cure correction of wrongs, cannot be a free 
people, aud do not deserve to be. But it is not 
necessary that it be done with passion. You 
are a portion of the people of the United 
States; act in a manner becoming your high 
character. Sedition does not become it; clam- 
or does not become it. Action, at the proper 
time and in the proper manner, according to 
legal and constitutional provision, is what we 
want, and what the world has a right to ex- 
pect." 

THE ABOLITIONISTS FELT UNEASY. 

The following was from the Anii-Slavery 
Standard: 

"I think there can be doubt that Gen. Burn- 
side committed a blunder in payina; any atten- 
tion to his (Vallttudigham's) stump speeches. 
He should have been indicted and tried in the 
courts. That is the better way in a free State. 
For one, I am not going to desert the cause of 
free speech and good government. Let men 
like Vallandigham be punished in and by the 
courts. If any body gets down where there 
are no courts on the border, where the war 
rages, let the military power govern him. but it 
is not quite time yet to let Gen. Burnside di- 
rect the newspapers and the politicians of 
Ohio. If he may do so, the next step will be 
for Gen. AVool to suppress the newspapers of 
New York. Those who justify the military 
arrest of Vallandigham for mnking excited 
stump speeches could not deny to Gen. Ilalleck 
the right to suppress every newspaper in the 
country through his subordinates. Gen. Burn- 
side is the sole judge, according to this mili- 
tary theory, and of course Gen. Wool would 
be the only judge in New York. Let us not 
admit too much against our own liberties in 
this terrible attempt to suppress the pro-slavery 
revolution.'^ 



To like purport, the Washington correspond- 
ent of the New York Lidcpendent writes as fol- 
lows: 

"It is yet doubtful what will be done with 
Mr. Vallandigham. It is reported here that 
Mr. Seward says it was a great mistake for 
Gen. Burnside to arrest him — that he should 
have been brought before the courts and tried 
for treason. If this is Mr. Seward's position, 
he exhibits his unusual sagacity. The time has 
not yet arrived when there is a necessity for 
arresting citizens and trying them by court- 
martial in the states where the conflict of arms 
does not rage. If Gen. Burnside may with 
propriety ignore the civil courts in Ohio, so 
may Gen. L)ix in New York, and the next step 
will ba, perhaps, the arrest of every editor in 
New York who offends Gen. Halleck by criti- 
cisms upon his course. For it must be remcm- 
beaed shat it is the General who arrests, who is 
sole judge of the necessity, and if a half dozen 
officers can be found who believe that criti- 
cisms upon the General-in-chief tend to evil in 
the army, then your Washington correspond- 
ent and the editors of the Independent may soon 
be sentenced to the Dry Tortugas! There are 
no liberties for the citizen if the new military 
doctrine prevails. The better course is to stick 
to law and order, and in the peaceful states to 
prosecute men in the civil courts for treason- 
able acts. The experience of 18t)2 certainly 
shows this. The President hesitates, aud wise- 
ly. He doubtless dislikes to seem to shrink 
from a collision with the copperheads. If Val- 
landigham goes free again, all will agree that 
it was a blunder that the arrest was made; but 
the President cannot evade the blunder, and 
he ;s forced to decide upon its merits." 

The Administration Condemned by its own 
Organs. 

[From the Evening Post, May 14.J 
BURNSIDE AND VALLANDIGHAM. 

"General Burnside's response to the Circuit 
Court, from which a writ of habeas corpus was 
asked in the case of C. L. Vallnndighara, ar- 
rested for treasonable words spoken, and tried 
by a military commission, is published on 
another page. It is so patriotic in spirit, so 
decided in its expressions of loyalty, and so 
nobly bold in taking the responsibility, that 
we almost dislike to question its propriety. — 
Yet, we think dangerous fallacies run through 
it, which ought to be exposed. General Bui-n- 
side will himself be among the first to rectify 
his positions as soon as it is made manifest to 
him that they are wrong. 

"He assumes that because he and his sol- 
diers may not indulge in 'wholesale criticisms 
of the policy of the government,' because it 
would be an offence in him and bis officers to 
undermine the confidence of the men in the 
perfect wisdom and integrity of the adminis- 
tration, therefore no citizen has a right to utter 
such criticisms. But he forgets th it persons 
'in the military and naval service of the United 
States' are subject to military law, while the 



220 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



ordinary citizen is subject exclusively to civil 
law. Military law is a part of the law of the 
land as much as the civil law; but it is appli- 
cable only to a particular class, and adminis- 
tered only by special tribunals. Soldiers in 
service, cadets at West Point, servants of offi- 
cers and citizens within the actual lines of the 
army may be guilty of offences created by that 
law and tried by its courts; but we doubt 
whether it can be extended to others in any 
case. Mr. Vallandigham does not beloug to 
either of these categories. 

"Neither does it seem to us that martial law 
as it is called by the English and French writ- 
ers, and the "state of seige" by the French — 
a different thing from military law — has been 
prsclaimed to exist in the department of the 
Ohio. Or, even if it has been proclaimed, we 
doubt whether any authority under it can be 
exercised against persons who arc not immedi- 
ately within the scope of active military opera- 
tions. It is at least an arbitrary application of 
military government — the government of mere 
force — which substitutes the will of the com- 
manding general for the common or municipal 
law, and which ought not to be resorted to ex- 
cept in cases of absolute necessity. When do- 
mestic turbulence and riot prevent the exercise 
of the ordinary jurisdictions, when the presence 
of contending armies drives out the inhabitants, 
when the behests of law are set at naught by 
an entire district, there is occasion for the 
strong hand of military power. But in other 
social conditions the appeal to it is unnecessary 
and in all probability hurtful. 

"Vallandighnm's offences, moreover, have 
been as yet confined to the use of foolish words. 
He calls Mr. Lincoln bad names; he denounces 
the Republican party; he abuses Burnside's 
new military orders, and his example and his 
instructions are exceedingly pernicious. But, 
alas, we cannot, in the spirit of Anacharsis 
Kloot's demand, hang all the dastards and 
scoundrels at discretion. Vallandigham has 
not, that we hear, committed any overt act of 
treason; he has not resisted the laws, tliough 
he has perhaps counselled resistance; and until 
Le does, his ,silly babbling, like Bi-ooks' and 
Wood's, must be allowed to pass for what it is 
worth. It is not liiiety to persuade more than 
a few ignorant or malignant men to do wrong. 
Besides, no governments and no authorities are 
to he held as above criticisin or even denuncia- 
tion- We know of no other way of correcting 
their faults — spurring on their sluggishness, 
or restraining their tyrannies — than by open 
and bold discussion. How can a popular gov- 
ernment, most of all, know the popular will, 
and guide its course in the interests of the 
community, unless it be told from time to time 
what the popular convictions and wishes are? 
Despotisms, like that of Louis Napoleon or the 
Czar of Russia, have no need of this inspira- 
tion and control from the people, because they 
are not administered in the interests of the 
people, and look to those of a single man or a 
family, which can very well manage its own 
affairs. But a republic lives alone in its fidel- 
ity to the sentiments of the whole nation. 



"Abuses and licenses of course adhere to 
this unlimited freedom of public criticism; but 
these are apparently inseparcble from the use, 
and without the abuse we should scarcely have 
the use. It is a question, too, who is to draw 
the line between the use and the abuse outside 
of the couits established for the election and 
punishment of all offences. If Vallandigham's 
peace nonsense is treasonable, may not Gree- 
ley's be equally so? If he cannot arraign the 
conduct of the war, can Mr. S chalk, who has 
written a book on strategj^ which is the severest 
arraignment of it yet printed? If he may not 
question the justice or the propriety of Burn- 
side's orders, may the Evaiiiuj I'ont or a thou- 
sand other journals venture to hint a doubt of 
the superhuman military abilities of General 
Ilalleck? We know it maybe said that his mo- 
tives are bad and treasonable, while those of 
the others are loyal; but tribunals and com- 
missions cannot inquire into motives. Deeds 
are tangible, but not thoughts. 

"Our ai'ticle is already too long, or we should 
like to add a line of the punishment meted out 
to this Western demagogue. He has been sen- 
tenced, it is said, to two years' confinement to 
the Tortugas Islands. It is a penalty which 
will make him n martyr, and rouse his old 
friends and others to earnest expressions of 
sympathy. He ought merely, at most, to have 
been sent beyond our lines, to the rebel friends 
whom he so much admires and serves, and the 
change would have been a gain to us, if no 
great giin to them. Nor, supposing the right- 
fulness of the jurisdiction, could anyone have 
complained of a sentence which mercifully con- 
fines the culprit to the agreeable society of this 
kind." 

[Irom tlic Xew York Tribune, May 15.] 
"VALLANDIGHAM. 

"General Jackson was doubtles a man ci 
more than average sagacity, yet we do not think 
he showed it in writing, after taking ample 
time for cool reflection, that, had he been mil- 
itary commandant in Connecticut in December, 
1814, he would have hung the leading members 
of the Hai'tford Convention under the second 
section of the Article of AVar. We will not 
here discuss the legality of such execution; 
but we insist that it would have been most im- 
politic and unwise. The Hartford Convention 
did very mueh to save a timid and feeble ad- 
ministration from falling into general contempt 
and odium. It gave the country its first look 
oyer the precipice of disunion, and impelled it 
to shrink back shuddering, resolved to bear 
any temporary ills rather than plunge into the 
yawning vortex beneath. For a supporter of 
Madison and the war, to have shot or hung the 
leading Hartford Conventionists, would have 
been not merely harsh but ungrateful. 

"The copperhead spirit never had a freer 
development than in the recent Connecticut 
etection, where it harmed none but those it 
sought to serve. Had the democrats of that 
State simply renominated their former candi- 
dates and held their tongues they must have 



SCRAPS FEO.M MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



221 



triumphed. But they placed a prominent cop- 
perhead in the front, and had such men as 
Toucev, Mayor Wood, Brooks. Richardson, 
Schnabel and Perrin to aid him in the canvass 
and that settled their coffee. Their adversaries 
had no power to beat thrm, but they were per- 
fectly able to beat themselves, if the govern- 
ment would only let them. And they did. 

"Mr. Clement L. Yallandigham is a pro- 
slavery Democrat of an exceedingly coppery 
hue. His politics are as bad as can be. If 
there were penalties for holding irrational, un- 
patriotic and inhuman views with regard to po- 
litical questions, he would be one of the most 
flagrant offenders. But our federal and state 
constitutions do not recognize perverse opin- 
ions nor unpatriotic speeches, as grounds of 
infliction of the speeches themselves, and then 
the hearer suflers the penalty, not the speak- 
er. So we don't exactly see how Mr. V. is to 
be lawfully punished for m.aking a bad speech, 
unless by compelling him to make it to empty 
seats. 

"We fully agree with General Burnside that 
Yallandigham ought not to make such speeches 
— that he ought to be ashamed of himself — but 
then he will make them and won't be ashamed 
— so what will you do about it? "Send him to 
the Dry Tortugas," says the General— probably 
as a hint to him to "dry up.'' "Send him over 
into Dixie," the President is said to suggest as 
an alternative. But this is the worst joke Mr. 
Lincoln has yet made. Thev don't trouble 
themselves to try and sentence opposition ora- 
tors down that way — they kill them on sight, 
and save a world of trouble. Mr. Yallandig- 
ham must be aware that any person making 
just such speeches in Dixie against the war for 
secession, as he makes on our side against the 
■war for the Union, could not live out the first 
day's experiment. lie would bo shot by the 
first rebel that could obtain a loaded musket, 
and that would be the end of him. Sending 
copperheads down to Jeifdom, where they have 
speeches only on the side the ''poiyersthatbe," 
■would set a dozen such tongues wagging for 
every one so silenced. Beside, "carrying coals 
to Newcastle" has never been considered poli- 
tic nor statesmanlike. 

VIEWS OF .JUDGE DUER OX THE VSURPATIONS 
OF THE ADMINISTRATION'. 

Jhtrtial Law Cannot be Established in the 
Loyal States — The Courts to be Upheld by 

Force if Neeessarii. 

"Oswego, May 29. 
"Gextlemex: I received some time ago your 
l.tter inviting me to attend the public meeting 
cilled to vindicate the right of the people to 
express their sentiments upon political ques- 
tions. It was not in my power to be present at 
tlio meeting, and illness has prevented me un- 
til the present moment from answering your 
letter. I answer it now, though late, both to 
explain my apparent incivility, and also be- 
case I think that in the present crisis no loyal 
citizen ought to shrink from the expression of 
liis opinion. 



"The action that has taken place since your 
meeting was held convinces me that it is the 
intention of the President to crush opposition 
to their acts by means of force and terror. 
For this purpose they have established and do 
now actually enforce martial law in several 
loyal states, and they will doubtless do the 
same in New York and everywhere else unless 
they are made to know that the people will not 
submit to it. 

"To many persons the words "martial law" 
do not convey any very definite idea. They 
know that it is something very harsh and rig- 
orous, and summary, but they suppose that it 
bears some resemblance to all other laws of 
which they have ever beard or read, in this 
respect at least; that it defines offenses and 
fixes their punishment. And Icannot but sup- 
pose that many of those who clamor for its es- 
tablishment are ignorant that it is nothing in 
the world but the absolute and unrestrained 
will of a military chiefiain. Permit me, then, 
to give a descriptien of martial law upon the 
authority of the highest judicial tribunal of 
our country. The language is that of Judge 
Woodbury in delivering the opinion of the 
court in a case determined by the Supreme 
Court of the United States: 

"By it," says the court, "every citizea, instead of re- 
posing under the shield of known and fixed laws as to 
his lihcrty, property, and life, exists with a rope round 
hisneck. suljject to be hung up by a military despot at 
the next lamp-post under the sentence of some drum-head 
court -m.irtial.'- 

"It is true that the Ptepublicans have reason 
to believe that they ■will be safe from the hor- 
rors of this law under a Republican adminis- 
tration. No Republican or Abolitionist has 
yet been arrested, imprisoned, or banished, 
and they may reasonably calculate that none 
ever will be. Such persons are pei'mitted to 
stigmatise the Constitution as a league with 
hell, and insist that the -war shall be prose- 
cuted, not to restore the Union, but to destroy 
it, ■without being regarded as guilty of any 
"disloyal practice." The only suflFerers, so 
far, have been Democrats. Indeed, the very 
purpose for which the establishment of martial 
la^w is sought by the managers of the clubs and 
leagues is to destroy the Democratic party.— 
And we find it declared in an official document 
emanating from the War Department, that to 
support the Democratic party is to support the 
cause of the rebels. 

"This terrible engine, then, is to be set in 
motion by one political party for the persecu- 
tion of another, arming neighbor against 
neigbor, and setting issues in every household. 
The machinery is prepared. Already the se- 
cret societies are in motion, bound by ■what 
oaths, I know not. That they who design these ■ 
things design all their dreadful consequences, 
I dot believe; but they know little of human 
nature and little of history who cannot discern 
them. Under a single despot there is equality; 
from a single despot there maj' be hope of es- 
cape. But the worst form that despotism can 
assume is that of the tyranny of party over 
party; and if anything can add to its horrors it 



222 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



is when the dominant faction is inflamed by 
fanaticism and led by priests. 

"What matters it that these men are consci- 
entious, that they act under a sense of duty. 
of religious duty? I do not impeach their mo- 
tives. The more conscientious they are, the 
worse. All factions are conscientious, and it 
is this that makes their tyranny, of all tyran- 
nies, the most insufferable. 

"What we can and ought to do, beyond the 
mere expression of oursj-mpathy, in aid of our 
oppressed countrymen in Ohio, Kentuciiy, and 
Indiana, is a subject upon which it may be as 
well at present to say nothing. Let us wait the 
course of events. We have an immediate ques- 
tion to determine for ourselves, and that is 
whether we will permit the establishment of 
the same species of government in our own 
state; a government which not only no English- 
man and no Frenchman would endure, but 
against which the very lazzaroni of Naples 
would revolt. I do not speak of exceptional 
cases of an extreme public necessity, such as 
we may imagine, though their occurrence is 
not at all probable; but I speak of systematic 
acts, done under claim of right, without ne- 
cessity, upon false pretences — acts which are 
not only flagrantly unconstitutional, but utter- 
ly subversive of liberty and of law, and of 
which the manifest tendency, if not the pur- 
pose, is not to maintain the Union but to de- 
stroy it. I am sure that we will not submit to 
this, and we ought to say so plainly. I have no 
faith in any petitions, protests, or remonstran- 
ces that fall short of this. There is danger in 
leaving the President ignorant of our purpose. 
I am not sanguine enough to hope for anything 
from his sense «f justice or respect for the law. 
The powers that control him, whether spirit- 
ual or terrestrial, will do to us whatever we 
will suffer, but are not likely to attempt that 
which they know we will not suffer. 

"At the same time I deprecate all resistance 
that is not strictly constitutional. Let us not 
only submit to but support all proper authori- 
ty. The President claims the constitutional 
power to establish martial law over the body 
of the people in the loyal states. We deny it. 
Let the courts determine the question. The 
judicial authority is vested in the courts, and 
not in the President, the Congress, or the 
Army. It is as much the duty of the Presi- 
dent as of any private citizen to submit to that 
authority. If he resists it he becomes an 
usurper, and may himself be lawfully resisted. 
And on the other hand, if any court or judge, 
acting under the forms of law, shall sanction 
his monstrous assumptions, let us in turn sub- 
submit ; not because there may not be judicial 
as well as executive usurpation, and the same 
right in extreme cases to resist the one as the 
other, but on account of the condition of the 
country, and the double dangers that assail us. 
In this way there may be occasional acts of 
tyranny, as has been already, but upon the 
whole the restraint of the judiciary will be 
found adequate to our protection, if the Presi- 
dent himself Avill respect it, 

"But if any citizen of this state shall be ar- 



rested or imprisoned by militai'y men, or by 
provost marshals or other officers, acting under 
the authority of the President, and the court 
before whom the question shall be brought 
shall determine that he is entitled to his liber- 
ty, then, if in spite of this decision^ force shall 
be used to detain him^ there ought to be no hesi- 
tationto support the judiciary in opposition to 
military usurpation and I should regard it as 
a base andcoivardly not to do so unless in the 
face of such a force as should make resistance 
quite hopeless. If it be said that such action 
would impede the successful prosecution of the 
war, I answer that it is better that a nation 
should lose a portion of its territory than its lib- 
erty. And if for this cause the rebellious states 
shall succeed in establishing their independence 
the fault will be that of the administration; and 
the people, driven to choose between two evils, 
will have wisely chosen that which beyond all 
comparison is the least. 

"The times require, in a very high degree, 
the exercise of the virtues of courage and of 
prudence. Moderation in our counsels will 
give us strength and unity in action. Let us 
accept as our leader him whom not less merit 
than position designates (the chief magistrate 
of our state), and follow him and support that 
moderate and patriotic, but not feeble or un- 
manly policy which he has recommended and 
enforced with so much dignity and success, and 
I shall yet hope that the Union may triumph 
over both classes of its enemies — the southern 
secessionist and the northern abolitionist. I 
remain, gentlemen, very respectfully your 
servant, WILLIAM DUER. 

"To Gideon J. Tucker, John Hardy, and An- 
drew Mathewson, Esqs." 

[From the New York World.] 

PRESIDENT Lincoln's defense. 

"The President not only admits that citizens 
have been deprived of their liberty on mere 
partisan conjectm-es of their possible inten- 
tions, but he confesses that these conjectures 
have had nothing to rest upon. 

'•The man who stands by and says nothing when the 
peril of his government is discussed, cannot be misunder- 
stood." 

"Was anything so extraordinary ever before 
uttered by the chief magistrate of a free coun- 
try? Men are torn from their homes and im- 
mured in bastiles for the shocking crime of — 
silence! Citizens of the model republic of the 
world are not only punished for speaking their 
opinions, but are plunged into dungeons for 
holding their tongues! When before, in the 
annals of tyranny, was silence ever punished 
as a crime? 

"Citizens who disapprove of the acts of the 
administration are denied eyen the refusie of 
a diguiffed silence, and, on malicious and par- 
tisan conjectures of the motives of such silence, 
they are deprived of their liberty. Few among 
us ever expected to live to see such things done; 
and nobocly, we are sure, to see them so un- 
blushingly confessed. What must be Mr. Lin- 
coln's appreciation of the public sentiment of 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK. 



223 



the world, when he thus comes before the 
country with a paper containing statements 
which sound more like the last dying speech 
and conversation of a tyrant than like they^^*- 
tification of the elected ruler of a free people? 
"The courts, of course, cannot punish this 
dreadful crime of • standing by and saying 
nothing.' Mr. Lincoln admits this, and as- 
signs a very good reason : 

" Because," says he, " tbe arrests complained of were 
not made for treason — that is, not for the treason defined 
in the Constitution." 

"It is a tolerably safe position, that silence, 
' to stand by and say nothing,' is not ' the 
treason defined in the Constitution' ; it is a 
treason which our fathers never thought of 
providing against; they guaranteed free speech, 
but they never imagined that free silence could 
ever stand in need of protection. So far from 
silence being ' the treason defined in the Con- 
stitution,' it is ' a treason ' invented by Abra- 
ham Lincoln. It was reserved for him, in the 
last half of the enlightened nineteenth centu- 
ry, to hit upon this refinement, which had 
escaped the acuteness of all preceding tyrants. 

"The man who stands by and says nothing,' 
the president tells us, 

"(■/^ «o</(incZccc(7, is sure to help the enemy; much more 
if he tallvs for liis country with 'buts' and 'ifs' and 
'ands.'" 

"While silence is a 'sure' presumptive proof of 
treason, any exceptions to any of the acts of 
the administration (for what else does Mr. 
Lincoln mean by 'buts,' 'ifs,' etc?) is proof 
conclusive. This is the most amazing state- 
ment ever made by a public man." 



CHAPTER XXX. 

ARBITRARY POWER— MILITARY ARRESTS, kc, 

(Continued.) 

John Adams s Monarchist. ..What the Early Fathers 
thought of tbe Vallandigham Case. ..Great Speech of 
Edward Livingston on the Alien Bill, 1798. ..Terrible 
Scathing of Assumptions of Arbitrary Power. ..W"bo 
was Edward Livingston ?... Republican Confessions of 
Gross Abuses of Arbitrary Power. ..Case of Messrs. 
Brinsmade and Mahoney... Damaging Admissions by 
" Milwaukee Sentinel "...General Remarks thereon. 

WHAT THE EAKLY FATHERS THOUGHT OF THE 
VALLANDIGHAM CASE. 

The world is not ignorant of the fact that the 
elder Adams was a Limited Monarchist. In 
our early history he published three volumes 
devoted to this subject. In Vol. 1, p 209, we 
find this declaration, in reply to the principles 
of a Republic, as laid down by Plato: 

"The aristocracy, or ambitious Republic, 
becomes immediately an Oligarchy. What 
shall be done to prevent it? Place two guar- 
dians of the law to watch the aristocracy; one 
in the shape of a KI2sG, on one side of it; 



another in thesh.ipe of Deinocratical Assembly 
on the other sile.'" 

We might quote many pages all to the same 
purport; this, however, will sufSce. In 1797 
he became President of the United States, and 
attempted to enforce his views of a mixed Mon- 
archy, by means of the Alien and Sedition 
Laws, and concentrating power in the hands of 
the President, nevor contemplated by the Con- 
stitution or the people who adopted it. For 
this an dignant people hurled him from power, 
by the election of 1800. The celebrated Alien 
bill was before the House of Representatives 
for discussion on the 21st of June, 1798, when 
the Hon. Edward Livingston, famous in the 
early history of our Government, made a 
speech against it, which for logical reasoning, 
power and eloquence, has seldom ever been 
equaled, even in the palmiest days of Clay and 
Webster. 

This speech so exactly hits every stage and 
degree of the Vallandigham and other simi- 
lar cases, and prophecies these latter day 
usurpations and acts of despotism, with such 
minute exactness, that we feel justified iu 
transferring it entire to these pages. 

SPEECH OF THE HON. EDWARD LIVINGSTON 

On the Third Reading of the Alien Bill^ June 
21, 1798. 

[See American Museum and Annual Register, Pub. 179?,' 
p.. 196-7, &C.J 

Mr. Livingston said: — "He esteemed it one 
of the most fortunate occurrences of his life, 
that after ai% inevitable absence from his seat 
in that House, he had arrived in time to ex- 
press his dissent to the passage of the bill. It 
would have been a source of eternal regret, 
and the keenest remorse, if any private aflfairs, 
however urgent — any domestic concerns, how- 
ever interesting — had deprived him of the op- 
portunity he was then about to use, of stating 
his objections, and recording his vote against 
an act which he believed was in direct violation 
of the constitution, and marked with every 
characteristic of the most odious despotism. 

"On my arrival, sir," said Mr. Livingston, 
"I enquired what subject occupied the atten- 
tion of the House, and being told it was the 
alien bill, I directed the printed copy to be 
brought to me; but to my great surprise, seven 
or eight copies of different acts on the same 
subject, were put into my hands, among them 
it was difficult (so strongly were they marked 
by the same family features,) to discover the 
individual bill, then under discussion. This 
circumstance gave me a suspicion that the 
principles of the measures were erroneous. 
Truth marches directly to its end, by a single, 
undeviating path — error is either undetermined 



on its object or pursues it through a thousand 
■winding ■ways. The multiplicity of proposi- 
tions, therefore, to attain the same general but 
doubtful end, led me to suspect that neither 
the object nor the means proposed to attain it, 
■were proper or necessary. These surmises were 
confirmed by a more minute examination of the 
act. In the construction of statutes, it was a 
received rule to examine what was the state of 
things when it was passed, and what •were the 
evils it was intended to remedy. As these cir- 
cumstances would be applied in the construc- 
tion of the law, it might be well to examine 
them minutely in framing it- The state 
of things, if we are to judge from the com- 
plexion of the bill, must be that a number of 
aliens enjoying the protection of our govorn- 
ment. are plotting its destruction. That they 
are engaged in treasonable machinations 
against a people who have given them an asy- 
lum and support, and that no provision is found 
to provide for their expulsion and punishment. 
If these things be so. and no remedy exists for 
the evil, one ought speedily to be provi- 
ded. But even then, it must be a rem- 
edy consisteiit tcith the Constitution under 
■which we act; for as by that instrument all 
powers not expressly given by it to the Union 
are reserved by the states, it follows that un- 
less an express authority can be found, vesting 
us with the power, be the evil never so great, 
it can only be remedied by the several states 
■who have never delegated the authority to 
Congress; but this point will be presently ex- 
amined, and it will not be a difficult task to 
eliow that the provisions of this bill are not 
only unauthorized by the Constitution, but are 
indirect violation of its fundamental princi- 
ples, and contradictory to some of its most ex- 
press prohibitions. At present it is only ne- 
cessary to ask whether the state of things con- 
templated by the bill have any existence. We 
must legislate upon facts, not on surmises; we 
must have evidence — not vague suspicions, if we 
mean to legislate with prudence. What facts 
have been produced — what evidence has been 
submitted to the House'? I have heard, sir, 
of none. But if evidence of facts coul4 not be 
produced, at least it might have been Expected 
that reasonable cause of suspicion should he 
shown. Here, again, gentlemen T/ere at fault. 
They could not show even a suspicion why 
these aliens ought to be suspected. We have 
indeed been told that the fate oi Venice, Swit- 
zerland and Batavia was produced by the 
interferance of foreigners. But the in- 
stances were unfortunate, because all those 
powers had been overcome by foreign 
force, or divided by domestic faction; not 
by aliens who resided among them, and if 
any instruction was to be gained from those 
Republics, it would be that we ought to ban- 
ish, not the aliens, but all those citizens who 
did not aiyproveof the Executive acts. This, I 
believe, gentlemen are not ready to own, but 
if this measure prevails, / shall not think the 
other remote. But, if it had been proved that 
these governments were destroyed by the con- 
spiracies of aliens, it yet remains to show that 



we are in the same situation, or that any such 
plots have been detected, or are even reasona- 
bly suspected here. Nothing of this kind has 
been yet done. A modern theseus, indeed, 
has told us, he has procured a clue that ■will 
enable him to penetrate the labyrinth, and de- 
stroy this monster of sedition. Who the fair 
Ariadne is that kindly gave him the ball, he 
has not revealed — nor, though several days 
have elapsed since he undertook the adventure, 
has he yet told where the monster lurks. No 
evidence, then, being produced, we ha^ye a 
right to say that none exists, and yet, we are 
about to sanction a most important act, and on 
what grounds 1 Our individual suspicio7is — 
our private fears, and our overheated imagina- 
tions. Seeing nothing to excite these suspicions 
and not feeling these fears, I could not give 
my assent to the bill, even if I did not feel a 
superior obligation to reject it on other grounds. 
As far as ray own observation goes, I have 
seen nothing like the state of things contem- 
plated by the bill. Most of the aliens I have 
seen, were either traduced Englishmen or 
Frenchmen, with dejection in their counte- 
nances and grief at their hearts, preparing to 
quit the country and seek another asylum. But, 
if these plots exist — if this treason be apparent 
— if these be aliens be guilty of the crimes 
ascribed to them — an effectual remedy presents 
itself for the evil. We have already wise laws 
— we have upright judges, [upright judges are 
just what Federals and Republicans ever fear- 
ed] and vigilant magistrates, and there is no 
necessity of arming the Executive with the 
destructive power proposed by the bill on your 
table. The laws now in force are competent 
to punish every treasonable or seditious at- 
tempt. 

"But, grant, sir, what has not been at all 
supported by facts, — grant that these fears are 
not visionary — that the dangers are imminent, 
and that no existing laws are sufficient to avert 
them ; let us examine whether the provis- 
ions of the bill are conformable to the princi- 
ples of the constitution. If it should be found 
to contravene them, I trust it will lose many 
of its present supporters ; but, if not only con- 
trary to the general spirit and principles of the 
constitution, it should also be found diametric- 
ally opposite to its most express prohibitions 
— I cannot doubt that it will be rejected with 
that indignant decision, which our duty to our 
county and our sacred oathes demands. 

TIIK ALIEN ACT AND ORDER 38. 

" The first sectiin provides that it shall be 
lawful for the president 

" to order all such aliens as he shiill judge dangerous to 
the peace and safety of the United States, or shall have 
reasonable grounds to suspect are concerned in any treason- 
able or secret machinations against the Government there- 
of, to depart out of the United States, in such time as shall 
be exjiressed in such oider." 

"Our Government, sir, is founded on the es- 
tablishment of those principles which consti- 
tute the difference between a free constitution 
and a despotic power. A distribution of the 
Legislative, Executive and Judiciary powers, 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



225 



into special hands — a distribution strongly 
marked in three first and great divisions of the 
Constitution. By the first, all Legislative 
power is given to Congress; the second, vests 
all Executive functions in the President, and 
the third declares that the Judiciary power 
shall be exercised by the Supreme and inferior 
courts. Here, then, is a division of Govern- 
mental powers, strongly marked — decisively 
pronounced, and every act of one or all of the 
branches that tends to confound these powers, 
or alter this arrangement, must he destructive 
of the Constitution. Examine then, sir, the 
bill on your table, and declare whether the few 
lines I have repeated from the first section, do 
not confound these fundamental powers of the 
Government — vest them all in the most unqual- 
ified terms in one hand, and thus subvert the 
basis on tvhich our liberties rest. Legislative 
power prescribes the rule of action; the Judi- 
ciary applies that general rule to particular 
cases, and it is the province of the Executive 
to see that the laws are carried into full effect. 
''In all free governments, these powers are 
exercised by different men, and their Union in 
the same hand is the peculiar c/iarac^ez-js/Zc of 
despotism. If the same power that makes the 
law can construe it to suit his interest, and ap- 
ply it to gratify his vengeance — if he can go 
further, and execute according to his own pas- 
sions [as Mr. Lincoln did in the case of 
Vallandigham and others] the judgment 
which he himself has pronounced upon 
his own construction of laws which he alone 
has made, [see "Order No. 38," e. g.] 
what other features are wanted to complete 
the picture of tyranny? Yet. all this, and 
more is proposed to be done by this act. [and 
was done under ''Order No. 38.'"] By it the 
President alone is empowered to make the law 
[Precisely the case as under the aforesaid Or- 
der] — to fix ill his own mind what acts, what 
words, what thoughts or looks [e.g. the "ifs," 
the "buts," the "ands" or the ''saying noth- 
ing," claimed by Mr. Lincoln in his reply to 
the Albany committeee, as grounds for not only 
suspicion, but punishment] shall constitute 
the crime contemplated by the bill, 
that is, the crime of being 'suspect- 
ed to be dangerous to the peace and 
safety of the United States. lie is not only 
authorized to make thii law [the law of ''Or- 
der No. 38,"] for his own conduct, [or the 
conduct of his Generals,] but to vary it at 
pleasure, [exactly the case of said order,] as 
every gust of passion — every cloud of suspicion 
shall agitato or darken his mind. The same 
power that formed the law then applies it to 
the guilty or innocent victim, whom his oicn 
suspicion.^, or the secret whisper of a. ?/>?/, [e.^ 
the tw® spies sent out to watch Vallandigham, 
and take notes of his speech, ic.,] have desig- 
nated as its object. The President, then, 
having made the law — the President having 
considered and applied it — the same Presi- 
dent is by the bill [Order 38] authorized to 
execute his sentence, [see sentence of Vallan- 
digham.] in case of disobedience, by impris- 
onment during his pleasure. This, then, comes 



completely within the definition of DESPO- 
TISM — a union of Legislative, Executive and 
Judicial powers. 

"But, this bill, sir, does not stop here. Its 
provisions are a refinement upon despotism, and 
present an image of the most fearful tyranny. 
Even in despotisms, though the monarch leg- 
islates, judges and executes, yet he legislates 
openly; his laws, though offensive, are known 
— they precede the offence, and every man who 
choses may avoid the penalties of disobedi- 
ence. Yet he judges and executes by proxy, 
and his present interest or passions do not in- 
flame the mind of his deputy. 

"But here the law is closely concealed in 
the same mind that gives it birth — the crime is 
fxciting the suspicions of the President; [That 
was Vallandigham's only crime, as admitted 
by Mr. Lincoln in his reply to the Albany com- 
mittee] but no man can tell what conduct will 
avoid that suspicion! A careless word [such 
as quoting the language used by the President 
in his message] perhaps misrepresented or 
never spoken, may be sufficient evidence. A 
look may destroy! An idle gesture may insure 
punishment! [Or the wearing of breast pins 
by the victim's friends.] No innocence can 
protect. No circumspection can avoid the 
jealousy of suspicion. Surrounded by spies, 
informers, and all that infamous herd u-hich 
fatten "under laics like this, [and under Order 
No. 33] the unfortunate stranger will never 
know either of the law, the accusation or the 
judgment until the moment it is put in execu- 
tion! [Let the thousands of victims of the 
Bastiles answer for the fulfillment of this 
prophesy.] He Avill detest your tyranny, and 
fly from a land of delators, inquisitors and 
spies. 

"This, sir, is a refinement on the detestable 
contrivance of the Decemvirs! They hung the 
table of their laws so high that few could read 
them. A tall man, [like the maker in our age] 
however, might reach — a short one might climb 
and learn their contents. But here, the law is 
equally inaccessible to high and low, safely 
concealed in the breast of its author. No in- 
dustry or caution can penetrate this recess, or 
obtain a knowledge of its provisions; nor even 
if they could, as the rule is not permanent, 
would it at all avail.' 

"Having shown that this act is at war with 
the fundamental principles of our government, 
I might stop here, in the certain hope of its 
rejection, but, I can do more. L'nless we are 
resolved to pervert the meaning of terms, I 
can show that the constitution has endeavored 
to 'make its surety doubly sure and take a 
bond of fate,' by several express prohibitions 
of measures like that you now contemplate. 
One of these is contained in the 9th section of 
the first Article — it is at the head of the Arti- 
cles which restrict the powers of Congress, 
and declares: 

'■That the migration or imjiortatiou of siuh per.'ons as 
any of the States shall think proper to aJmit, shall uot be 
prohibited prior to the year ISO^." 

"Now, sir, where is the difference between 
a power to prevent the arrival of aliens, and 



226. 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



the power to send them away as soon as they 
shall arrive. To me they appear precisely the 
same. The Constitution expressly says that 
Congress shall not do this, and yet Congress are 
about to delegate this prohibited power, and 
say that the President may exercise it as often 
as his pleasure may direct. I am informed 
that an answer, has been attem23ted to this ar- 
gument, by saying that the article, though it 
speaks of "persons' only relates to slaves, but 
a conclusive reply to this answer may be drawn 
from the words of the section. It speaks of 
migration and importation. If it related only 
to slaves, 'importation,' would have been suffi- 
cient; but, how can the other word apply to 
slaves? J.Iigration is a voluntary change of 
country, but who ever heard of a migration 
of slaves? The truth is, both words have their 
appropriate meanings, and were intended to 
secure the interests of different quarters of the 
Union. The Jliddle States wished to secure 
themsehes against any laws that might impede 
the migration of settlers. The Southern states 
[as well as Massachusetts, New Hampshire and 
Connecticut,] in the importation of slaves, and 
so jealous were they of this provision, that the 
5th article was introduced to declare that the 
constitution shall not be amended so as to do it 
away. 

•'But even admit the absurdity that the word 
'migration' has no meaning, or one foreign to 
its usual accepation, and tliat the article re- 
lates only to slaves — even this sacrifice of com- 
mon sense will not help gentlemen out of their 
dilemma. Slaves, probably always, but cer- 
tainly, on their first importation are aliens. 
Many people think they are always 'dangerous 
to the peace and safety of the United States.' 
If the President should be of this opinion, he 
not only can, but by the terms of this law, is 
obliged to order them off, for the act creates 
an obligation on him to send away all such 
aliens as he shall judge dangerous to the i^eace 
or safety of the United States. Thus accord- 
ing to the most favorable construction, every 
proprietor of this species of pi-operty holds it 
at the will and pleasure of the President, and 
this, too in defiance of the only article of the 
Constitution that is declared to be unalterable. 

'•But, sir, for a moment, if it be possible, 
let us imagine that a constitution founded on a 
division of powers into three hands, may be 
preserved, although all these powers should be 
surrended into one. Let us imagine, if we 
can, that the States intended to restrict the 
general government from preventing the ar- 
rival of persons whom they were yet willing to 
suffer that same general government to ship off, 
as soon as they should arrive. Grant all this, and 
they will be as far from establishing the con- 
stitutionality ot the bill as they were at the 
first moment it was proposed; for, in the 3d 
Article it is provided 

"That all 'judicial power shall be vested in the Supreme 
and inferior courts'; — 'that the trial of all crimes shall be 
Ijyjury,'" 

"Except in case of impeachment, and in 
the 7th and 8th amendments provision is re- 



peated an 1 enforced by others, which declare 
that 

" 'Xo man shall be held to answer for a capital or other- 
wise infamous crime, unless on a presentment of a grand 
jury' and that 'in all criminal prosecutions the accused 
shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an 
impartial jury of the state and district where the crime 
shall have been committed, which district shall have been 
previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the 
nature and cause of the accusation— to be confronted with 
the witnesses against him — to have compulsory procoss 
for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assist- 
ance of counsel for his defense . ' " 

"Now, sir, what minute article in these sev- 
eral provisions of the constitution is there that 
is not violated by this bill? All the bulworks 
which it opposed to encroachments on personal 
liberty fall before this engine of oppression. 

"Judiciary power is taken from Courts [as 
in Vallandisham's case,] and given to the Ex- 
ecutive. The previous safeguard of a present- 
ment by a grand inquest is removed. [Hits 
the Vallandigham and other cases exactly.] — 
The trial by jury is abolished. The 'public 
trial' required by the Constitution is changed 
into a secret and worse than inquisitorial tri- 
bunal. Instead of giving 'information of the 
nature and cause of the accusation,' the crimi- 
nal, alike ignorant of his offense and the dan- 
ger to which he is exposed, never hears of 
either, until the judgment is passed, and the 
sentence is executed. Instead of being ^con- 
fronted ivith his accusers,' he is kept alike ig- 
norant of their names and their existence, and 
even the forms of a trial being dispensed with, 
it would be a mockery to talk of 'process for 
witnesses,' [as it was when Vallandigham was 
denied the privilege to send for Fernando 
Wood,] or the 'assistance of counsel for de- 
fence.' 

"Thus, are all the barriers which the wisdom 
and humanity of our country had placed be- 
tween accused innocence and oppressive power, 
at once forced and broken down. Not a ves- 
tige, even, of their form remains. No indict- 
ment, [as in the case of Vallandigham,] no jury, 
[as in the case of Vallandigham and others,] 
no trial, [as in the case of Vallandigham, un- 
less it be said the solemn mockery of a picked 
commission was a trial,] no public procedure, 
[ditto,] no statement of the accusation, [as in 
hundreds of cases where the victims lay in the 
Government bastiles,] no examination of wit- 
nesses in its support, [ditto,] no counsel for 
defense, [ditto.] All is darkness, silence, 
mystery and suspicion. But, as if this were 
not enough, the unfortunate victims of this law 
are told in the next section that if they can 
convince the Pressident that his suspicions are 
unfounded, [Mr. Lincoln said to the commit- 
tee that if they could convince him that his 
suspicions were unfounded, &c.] he may — if 
he 2^leascs, give them a license to stay! But 
how remove his suspicions, when they know 
not on what account they were founded? [but 
how remove Mr. Lincoln's suspicions, when he 
has suspended the habeas corpus, and forbids 
his victims to go before the court — their only 
resort for leg.al evidence?] How take proof to 
convince him, when he is not bound to furnish 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



227 



that on which he proceeds? Miserable mock- 
ery of justice! 

•'Appoint an arbitrary judge, armed with 
legislative and executive powers, added to his 
own! Let him condemn the unheard — the un- 
accused object of his suspicion, and then, to 
cover the injustice of the scene, gravely tell 
him — 

" 'You ought not to complain — j-ou need only disprove 
facts you never beard — remove suspicions that have never 
been communicated to you— it will be easy to convince 
your judge — whom you shall not approach — that he is ty- 
rannical and unjust, and when you have done this, we give 
him the power he had before, to pardon you — if he pleases.^ 

[A perfect, and by no means overdrawn pic- 
ture of the case presented by the victims of 
Forts Henry, Warren, La Fayette, &c.] 

"So obviously do the constitutional object- 
ions present themselves, that their existence 
cannot be denied, and two wretched subterfu- 
ges are resorted to, to remove them out of 
sight: — First, it is said the bill does not con- 
template the punishment of any crime [the 
identical logic given by Mr. Lincoln to the Al- 
bany committee] and therefore, the provisions 
in the constitution relative to criminal pro- 
ceedings, and judiciary powers, do not apply! 
But have the gentlemen who reason thus, read 
the bill, or is everything forgotten in our zealous 
hurry to pass it? What are the offenses upon 
which it is to operate? Not only the offence of 
being 

"'Suspected to be dangerous to the peace and safety of 
the United States, but also that of being concerned in any 
treasonable or secret machinations against the government 
thereof.' 

[Precisely the law of Order 38.] "And this 
we are told is no crime! [Abraham Lincoln 
agrees with the advocates of the alien law in 
this respect.] A treasonable machination 
against the Government is not the subject of 
criminal jurisprudence! [Mr. Lincoln says 
so.] Good heaven! to what absurdities does 
an over zealous attachment to particular 
measures lead us! In order to punish a par- 
ticular act, we are forced^tosay that treason is 
no crime! and plotting against our Government 
[discouraging enlistments] is no offense. And, 
to support this fine hypothesis, we are obliged 
to'plunge deeper in absurdity and say,that as the 
acts spoken of in the bill are no crimes, so the 
penalty contained in it, is no punishment! 
[precisely Mr. Lincoln's argument] it is only a 
prevention. That is to say, we invite strangers 
to come among us — we declare solemnly, that 
Government shall not have the power to pre- 
vent them — we entice them over by delusive 
prospects and advantages. In mnny parts of 
the Union we permit them to hold lands, and 
give them other advantages, while they are 
waiting for the period at which we have prom- 
ised a full participation in all our rights. An 
unfortunate stranger, disgusted with tyranny 
at home, thinks he shall find freedom here — he 
accepts your conditions — he puts faith in your 
promises — he vests his whole property in your 
hands— he has dissolved his former connections, 
and made your country nis own. But while he 
is patiently waiting the expiration of the peri- 



od that is to crown the work, and entitle him to 
all the rights of a citizen, the tale of a domes- 
tic spy, or the calumny of a secret enemy 
draws on him the suspicions of the President, 
and, unheard, he is ordered to quit the spot 
which he selected for his retreat — the country 
he had chosen for his own — perhaps the family 
which was his only consolation in life, he is 
ordered to retire to a country [now to Dixie] 
whose Government, irritated by his renunciation 
of its authority, will receive only to punish 
him, and all this we are seriously told, is no 
punishment! 

"Again: We are told that the constitutional 
compact was made between citizens only, and 
that, therefore, its provisions were not intend- 
ed to extend to aliens; and that this act, oper- 
ating only on them, is therefore not forbidden 
by the Constitution. But unfortunately,neither 
common law, common justice, or the practice 
of any civilized nation will permit this dis- 
tinction. It is an acknowledged principle of 
the common law, the authority of which is 
established here, that alien friends (and per- 
mit me to observe that they are such only whom 
we contemplate by this bill, for we have an- 
other before us to send oif alien enemies) re- 
siding among us, arc entitled to the protection 
of our laws, and that during their residence, 
they owe a temporary allegiance to our Gov- 
ernment. If they are accused of violating 
this allegiance, the same laws that interpose in 
the case of a citizen must determine the truth 
of the accusation, and if found guilty, they 
are liable to the same punishment. This rule 
is consonant to the principles of common jus- 
tice, for who would ever resort to another 
country, if he alone was marked out as the ob- 
ject of arbitrary power ? It is equally unfor- 
tunate too, for this argument, that the Consti- 
tution expressly excludes any idea of this 
distinction : — it speaks of '■alt judicial power' 
— '■all trials for crimes' — ''all criminal prose- 
cutions' — '■all persons accused.' No distinction 
between citizen and alien — between high or 
low — friends or opposcrs of the Executive 
power — republican and royalist. All — all are 
entitled to the same equal distribution of jus- 
tice — to the same humane provisions to protect 
their innocence — all are liable to the same 
punishment that awaits their guilt. How 
comes it, too, if the constitutional provisions 
were intended for the safety of the citizen 
only, that our courts uniformly extend them 
to all, and that we never hear it enquired. 
Whether the accused is a citizen, before we 
give him a public trial by jury ? 

"So manifest do these violations of the con- 
stitution appear to me — so futile the arguments 
in their defence — that they press seriously 
upon my mind, and sink it even to despond- 
ency. They have been so glaring to my un- 
derstanding that I felt it my duty to speak of 
them in a manner that may perhaps give of- 
fence to men whom I esteem, and who seem to 
think differently on that subject — none how- 
ever, I caii assure them, is intended. 

"I have seen measures carried in this House 
which I thought militated against the spirit of 



228 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



the constitution, but never before have I been 
a Tvitness to so open, so wanton and undisguis- 
ed an attack. 

"I have now clone, sir, with the act, and 
come to consider the consequences of its oper- 
ation. One of the most serious has been an- 
ticipated when I described the blow it would 
give to the constitution of our country. We 
should cautiously beware the first act of viola- 
tion. Habituated to overleap its bounds, we 
become familiarized to the guilt, and disregard 
the danger of a second otfence, until proceeding 
from one unauthorized act to another, we at 
length throw off all restraints which our con- 
stitution has imposed, and very soon not even 
the semblance of its forms will remain. 

"But. if, regardless of our duty as citizens, 
and our solemn obligations as representatives 
— regardless of the rights of our constituents, 
of their opinions and that of posterity — regard- 
less of every sanction, human and divine — if we 
are ready to violate the Constitution we have 
sworn to defend — will the people submit to our 
unauthorized acts? Will the states sanction 
our usurped power? Sir, they ought not to 
submit — they would deserve the chains which 
these measures are forging for them, if they 
did not resist — for, let no man vainly imagine 
that the evil is to stop here [we have seen the 
fultilmenc of this prophesy] — that a few unpro- 
tected aliens only are to be affected by this in- 
quisitorial power. The same arguments which 
enforce these provisions against aliens, apply 
with equal strength to enacting than in thr: case 
of citize?is. [Have we not seen this?] The 
citizen has no other protection for his personal 
security, that I know, against laws like this, 
than the humane provisions I have cited from 
tlie Constitution. But all these ai)ply in com- 
mon to the citizen and the stranger. ' All 
criines'' are to be tried by jury. ^No person' 
shall be held to finswer, unless on presentment. 
In all criminal ^prosecutions, the 'accused' 
is to have a public trial ; the 'accused' is 
to be informed of the nature of the charge — to 
be confronted with the witnesses against him 
— may have process to enforce the appearance 
of those in his favor, and is to be allowed 
counsel for his defence. Unless, therefore, 
we can believe that- treasonable machinations, 
and the other otfences described in the bill, 
are not crrme.s — that an alien i-s, uoi a. person, 
and that one charged with treasonable prac- 
tices is not accused — unless we can believe all 
this, in contradiction to our own understand- 
ings — to received opinions and the uniform 
practice of our courts, we must allow that all 
these provisions extend equally to aliei.s and 
natives, and that the citizen has no other secu- 
rity for his personal safety than is extended 
to the stranger who is within his gates. 

"If therefore, this securi-iy is violated in one 
instance, what pledge have we that it will not 
in the other? The same plea of necessity [Mr. 
Lincoln's plea] will justify both. Either the 
offences described in the act are crimes, or 
they are not. If they are, then all the humane 
provisions of the constitution forbid the mode 
of punishing or preventing them, equally as 



relates to aliens and citizens. If they are not 
crimes, then the citizen has no more safety by 
the constitution than the alien has, for all 
those provisions apply only to crimes. So that 
in either event, the citizen has the same reas- 
on to expect a similar law [and it was given in 
Order 38] to the one now before you, which 
subjects his person to the vncontrolled despot- 
ism of a single man. 

'•You have already been told of plots, of 
conspiracies, and all the frightful images that 
were necessary to keep up the present system 
of terror and alarm, were presented to you. 
But who were implicated by these dark hints, 
these mysterious allusions? They were our 
own citizens, sir, — not aliens. If there is, then, 
any necessity for the system now proposed, it 
is more necessary to be enforced against our 
own citizens than against strangers, and I have 
no doubt that either in this or some other shape 
they will be attempted. [This was a correc 
prophecy of Order 38.] 

"I now ask, sir, whether the people of 
America arc prepared for this? — whether they 
are willing to part with all the means which 
the wisdom of their ancestors discovered and 
their own caution so lately adopted, >to secure 
the liberty of their persons — whether they 
are ready to submit to imprisonment 
or exile [like the exile of Vallan- 
digham, for instance,] whenever sus- 
picion, calumny «r vengeance shall mark them 
for ruin? Are they base enough to be prepared 
for this? No, sir, they will — I repeat it, they 
will resist this tyrannic system. The people 
will oppose — the states will not submit to its 
operation. They ought not to acquiesce, and 
I pray to God they never may. My opinions, 
sir, on this subject, are explicit, and I wish 
they may be known. They are, that whenever 
our laws manifestlg infringe the Constitution^ 
under which they were made. the people ought 
not to hesitate which they should obey. If we 
exceed our powers we become tyrants, and our 
acts have no effect. Thus, sir, one of the first 
effects of measures, such as this, if they should 
not be acquiesced in, will be disaffection among 
the states, and opposition among the people, to 
your government. Tumults, violence, and a 
recurrence to first revolutionary principles 
[which Mr. Lincoln has argued was right and 
proper.] If they are submitted to, the conse- 
quences will be worse. After such manifest vi- 
olation of the principles of our constitution the 
form will not long be sacred. Presently, every 
vestige of it will be lost, and swallowed up in 
the Gulf of Despotism! But, should the evil 
proceed no further than the execution of the 
present law, what a fearful picture will our 
country present ! The system of espionage 
thus established, the country will swarm with 
informers, [as we have seen in our day] spies, 
delators, and all that odious reptile tribe that 
breed in the sunshine of despotic power — that 
suck the blood of the unfortunate— that creep 
into the bosom of sleeping innocence only to 
wake it with a burning wound. [What a 
graphic, life-like picture of what we have seen 
for the two years last past !] The hours of 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



229 



the mcst unsuspecting confidence — the inta- 
macies of friendship, or the recesses of domes- 
tic retirement, afford no security [especially, 
as we have seen, when a hundred armed men 
surround the domicile of a man and seize and 
carry him oS at the dead hour of night] — the 
companion whom 5'ou most trust — the friend 
in whom you confide — the domestic who waits 
in your chamber, arc all tempted to betray 
your imprudence, or guardless follies — to mis- 
represent your words ; [as the spies and dela- 
tors did those of Vallandigham] to convey 
them, distorted by calumny^ to the secret tri- 
bunal, where jealousy presides — where fear 
officiates as accuser, and susjjicion is the only 
evidence that is heard. 

"These, bad as they are, are not the only 
ill consequences of these measures; amongthem 
we may reckon on the loss of wealth, of popu- 
lation, and of commerce. Gentlemen who sup- 
port the bill, seemed to be aware of this, when 
yesterday they introducetl a clause to secure 
the property of those who might be ordered 
to go ofi"; they should have foreseen the conse- 
quences of the steps they have been taking; it 
is now too late to discover, that large sums are 
drawing from the banks, that a great capital is 
taken from commerce. It is ridiculous even to 
observe the solicitude they show to retain the 
wealth of these dangerous men, whose persons 
they are so eager to get i-id of; if they wish to 
retain it, it must be by giving them security to 
their persons, and assuring them that while 
they respect the laws, the laws will protect 
them from arbitrary power: it must be, in short 
by rejecting the bill on your table. I might 
mention many other inferior considerations; 
but I ought, sir, rather to entreat the pardon 
of the house, for having touched on this: com- 
pared to the breach of our constitution, and 
the establishment of arbitrary power, every 
other topic is trifling; arguments of convenience 
sink into nothing; the preservation of wealth, 
the interests of commerce, however, weighty 
on other occasions, here lose their importance. 
When the fundamental rrinciples of freeuom 
are in danger, we are tempted to borrow the 
impressive language of a foreign speaker, and 
exclaim — "Perish our commerce; let our con- 
stitution live:" — Perish our riches; let our 
freedom live. This, sir, would be the senti- 
ment of every American, were the alternative 
between submission and wealth; but here, sir, 
it is proposed to destroy our wealth, in order 
to ruin our commerce. Not in order to pre- 
serve our constitution, but to break it — not to 
secure our freedom, but to abandon it. 

"I have now done, sir; but, before I sit down 
let me iutreat gentlemen seriously to reflect 
before they pronouuce the decisive vote, that 
gives the first open stab to the principles of our 
.government. Our mistaken ^eal, like that of 
nthe patriarch of old, has bound the victim; it 
lies at the foot of the altar; a sacrifice of the 
Ifirst-born offspring of freedom is proposed by 
'those who gave it birth. The hand is already 
raised to strike, and nothing I fear but the 
voice of heaven can arrest the impious blow. 
'Let not gentlemen flatter themselves, that 



the fervour of the moment can make tl ^^ --eople 
insensible to these agressions. It is ;i:. aonest 
noble warmth, produced by an indignant s^nse 
of injury. It will never, I trust, be extinct, 
while there is a proper cause to excite it; but 
the people of America, sir, though watchful 
against foreign agression, are not careless of 
domestic encroachment; they are as jealous, 
sir, of their liberties at home, as of the power 
and prosperity of their country abroad; they 
will awake to a sense of their danger; do not 
let us flatter ourselves then, that these meas- 
ures will be unobserved or disregarded. Do 
not let us be told, sir, that we excite a fervour 
against foreign agression, only to establish ty- 
anny at home, that, like the arch traitor, we 
cry, "i/aj7, C'o^wmi/cr," at the moment we are 
betraying her to destruction; that we sing out 
^'■happy land,'''' when we are plunging it in 
ruin or disgrace; and that wc are absurd 
enough to call ourselves '■'■free and enlightened,^'' 
while we advocate principles that would have 
disgraced the age of Gothic barbarity, and es- 
tablish a code, compared with which the ordeal 
is wise, and the trial by battle is merciful nnd 
just" 

WHO WAS EDWARD LIVINGSTON? 

The author of the foregoing speech was the 
son of an eminent patriot of the Revolution — 
was elected twice to Congress from New York 
city — was appointed by Mr. Jefl"erson as the 
United States District Attorney for New York 
— was elected Mayor of New Y'ork in 1801, and 
Judge of a very important municipal court 
He was Aid-de-camp to General Jaceson at 
New Orleans — was the author of the Louisiana 
code — author of a famous criminal code, which 
fixed his reputation among the foremost jurists 
in the land. In 1823 Mr. Livingston was 
elected to Congress from Louisiana, which 
place he held till 18-29, when he was elected to 
the Senate from that state. In 1831 General 
Jackson appointed him his Prime MinisterJn 
which capacity he wrote the celebrated anti- 
nullification message. In 1833, Gen. Jackson 
appointed him Minister to France, where he 
acquitted himself with great credit, and to the 
entire satisfaction of the hero of New Orleans. 

This was the man who in 1798 so eloquently 
denounced that bold attempt to turn this Gov- 
ernment into a despotism, and which has been 
so faithfully imitated by the present Adminis- 
ti-ation. 

republican confessions. 

The following article was prepared by us, 
and published in the Wisconsin Patriot, Nov. 
29, 1862. As it shows both sides, and we 
might not be able to improve on the arguments 
presented, we transfer it to these pages: 



230 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



That the abolitionists deeply feel the effect of 
the popular verdict against the unblushing 
tyranny, and usurpation, by which the Admin- 
istration has filled its bastiles with innocent 
victims of party hate, is too plain for dispute. 
When Mrs. Brinsmade, an artless, beautiful 
and giddy wife of 22 years, was chased about 
from city to city and finally arrested without a 
shadow of suspicion against her and caged with 
common criminals and burglars in a common 
police station, in New York, the abolition press 
heralded her arrest as an evidence that the Ad- 
ministration was sharp after traitors and trait- 
oresess, and much fiendish satisfaction was in- 
dulged in by the abolition press at the incar- 
ceration of this defenseless female. She was 
locked up as aforesaid for near fifty days, and 
closely watched, and all entreaties by respect- 
able ladies of New York and Brooklyn to see 
her and give her such necessaries as she might 
be suffering for, were peremptorily refused by 
the black hearted jacobin who held her a pris- 
oner. She had many respectable and loyal 
friends, who sought to procure for her a speedy 
trial, and if she could not be found guilty, to 
relieve her from her loathsome prison, and thus 
save reproach on the American character, but 
all to no purpose. She was held in durance 
■^ile until the elections thundered at the gates 
of criminal power, and then, and not until the 
thunder of the ballot had been heard all over 
the land, and the Belshazzars of power began 
to tremble with very fear, was this lady, guilty 
of no crime, permitted to "go in peace" with 
no charges against her- Then the Administra- 
tion organs began to plead the "Baby Act." 
They declared the Administration knew noth- 
ing of her arrest. But this had better be told 
to the marines, for the fact of the arrest of this 
female was heralded throus;h the public press 
all over the North, and the Administration 
knew perfectly well that she was a prisoner, 
and they knew also that no charges had been 
filed against her. for so the pettifogging journ- 
als assert. 

Never, since our forefathers baptized the 
tea in Boston harbor, has our country been so 
disgraced, as by these arbitrary, unnecessary, 
despotic and unconstitutional arrests. It is 
too late in the day for the Administration to 
plead ignorance of specific arrests. It will 
avail them noihing in that awful blistering his- 
tory which time is writing out. Queen Eliz- 
abeth often pled ignorance of certain enor- 



mities committed by her perjured minions, but 
history holds her guilty of all, for having plan- 
ned the general crusade against the personal 
rights of her subjects. 

King Richard, the hunchback, pled igno- 
rance of the murder of the Heir-Apparent, in 
the Tower, and wondered who could have done 
so toul a deed — after he himself had bribed his 
ready-made tool, Buckingham, to the awful 
regicide. We repeat, it is too late in the day 
for the pensioned organs of the Administration 
to plead ignorance on its part, of the infamous 
enormities committed by a generally unprin- 
cipled set of Provost Marshals, appointed with- 
out the least public necessity, so far as the 
loyal North is concerned. 

By the plainest principles of the common 
law, handed down as judicial heir looms, by 
Justinian and other law givers, if a man 
turns loose a vicious animal, he is responsible 
to his neighbor for any damage that may be 
committed, though he might have known noth- 
ing of the depredations! So with the Presi- 
dent of the Ucited States. Without the au- 
thority of law — without warrant of any kind — 
without the poor plea of "military necessity" 
he has let loose upon our loyal society a set of 
vagabonds, who have committed the grossest 
outrages on decency and personal rights, and 
he must be responsible to an outraged people 
for the wrongs committed. He has sent the 
arrow quivering from the bow, and though its 
poisoned blade hits an object he did not aim at, 
he must bear the guilt of its ravages. 

We have another strong case in point, of Ma- 
honey, editor of the Dubuque Herald, who was 
a'-rested at two o'clock at night, and hurried 
off to the Old Capitol building, as a political 
prisoner, right under the very eye of the presi- 
dent. The Milwaukee Sentinel, whose editor is 
an appointee of the president, and of course 
pocket-bound to do his bidding, undertakes to 
put in another Baby-Act plea for the president. 
In speaking of Mahoney, who was liberated on- 
ly by the thunder of the ballot box, as mystei'i- 
ously as Paul and Silas were from the Jewish 
prison, the stipendiary editor says : 

" He has been incarcerated but a short time, 
and with others, has been set free without 
question. Were there a disposition to tyran- 
nize on the part of the government, and had 
Mahoney been arrested under the dictate or 
impulse of that spirit, it is altogether probable 
that he would have been detained, and not lib- 
erated as he was. The president, nor none of 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



231 



his subordinates, he says, was willing to take 
the responsibility of his arrest. It is not like- 
ly they would have shrunk from any such re- 
sponsibility; if any disposition to oppress him 
had caused the arrest. 

"The Government is obliged in existing evier- 
gencies to trust a vast deal of discretion to sub- 
ordinates — which subordinates have generally 
from the necessities of the case, been very 
hastily appointed, and in many cases lack the 
discretion required in the position. They do 
very foolish things, the arrest of Mahoney and 
others of the same stamp being among those 
foolish things. But the Government neither 
endorses or sanctions it. The moment Maho 
ney's case was reached, and the groundlessness 
and foolishness of the complaints against him 
were discovered, he was liberated. He complains 
that he does not yet know for what crime he was 
arrested. By acquitting him without question 
— the Government confesses substantially he 
was guilty of no crime. The moment the fact 
is ascertained he is liberated." 

This whole plea is as weak as it is babyish. 
It exhibits an evident consciousness of guilt, 
and overzealousness to avoid its natural conse- 
quences. This paid organ says that Mauoney 
"was incarcerated only a short time." If the 
editor of that sheet was incarcerated, in a 
loathsome cell, on prison diet for over three 
months, we hardly think he would call it a 
'•short time.*' But short or long, the principle 
is the same- And now says this organ, "he, 
with others, has been set free tvithoiit ques- 
tion! " Exactly! They did not even ask him 
whether he was guilty or innocent After beg- 
ging the Administration for over two months to 
give him a trial, or at least let him know the 
pretence of his arrest or incarceration, and all 
the while they refusing to do either, they turn 
him loose, "without question." Did mortal 
man ever hear of greater mocking of justice 
and decency? The man who could deliberate- 
ly pen an excuse for such ^diabolical conduct, 
would be the last to yield in a quarrel over the 
vesture of his Savior. 

The Sentinel attempts to weave the web of 
probability that the Administration is innocent, 
by raising the question that if the Administra- 
tion had really intended oppression, it would 
not have released Mahoney. What do you call 
a two months incarceration without charges of 
wrong, but oppression? But the "delivery" 
has no real merit. It was wrung from the Ad- 
ministration by the ballot-box thunder, as the 
Magna Charta was wrung from King John by 
his oppressed and determined subjects. If Ma- 
honey had been liberated before the election, it 
would have put a different phaze on the motive 



of the Administration, but to wait till the great 
states of the North had demanded by the potent 
ballot — "formidable to tyrants only"— that the 
oppressed innocent should go free — the act of 
liberation was no virtue, but a cowardly neces- 
sity. 

But, says this Custom House organ: 

"The Government is obliged, in existing 
emergencies, to entrust a vast deal of discretion 
to subordinates; and those suDordinates, hasti- 
ly appointed, often lack discretion, and do very 
foolish things; the arrest of Mahoney being 
among these foolish things," &c. 

Now, we deny that the Government is obliged 
in the existing emergencies, in any state north 
of the Ohio and Potomac, to appoint — "has- 
tily" or otherwise — any officers to arrest peo- 
ple at their will. The necessity does not, and 
never has existed. It is not within the power 
of any organ of the Administration to show 
that in any single instance, here in the North, 
the duties of a Provost Marshal are necessary. 
Among all the thousands of victims they have 
arrested, we have heard of not one that has 
been proven guilty, and we take it no man — 
even under the pressure of the highest salary 
— will plead for the necessity of arresting in- 
nocent men and women. But the plea of "hasty 
appointment" is the baby act over. It is worse 
than a baby's plea, for the appointments have 
been made with no more haste than thousands 
of other appointments. No, the people will not 
— cannot — except that plea. But the offer of 
it shows the crying guilt of the party in pow- 
er. Men always give their best reasons first 
for evil consequences, and if the Administra- 
tion has no better reason than its organ tosts 
to the waiting multitude, it might as well own 
up, first as last, that this Provost Marshal bu- 
siness was organized — not to serve the nation — 
but to serve the Abolition party as a threat- 
ening engine of oppression, to force the weak 
and timid to support the Abolition party; but, 
thank God, they have failed. Provost Mar- 
shals are no longer wanted. They have done 
many "foolish things." Let the Administra- 
tion discharge them, and thus save its credit 
while it is possible. 

"The moment Mahony's case was reached," 
says the Sentnel, "the groundlessness and 
foolishness of the complaints against him xocre 
discovered, and he was liberated!" 

What do you mean by "reaching" the case? 
That would indicate a kind of hearing, but 
nothing of the kind occurred, and as for the 



232 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



^'■fjroundless and foolishness of the complaint," 
that is all moonshine, for no complaint was ever 
lodged against him. and this the Sentinel ad- 
mits. From the start there was nothing char- 
ged against him, and this the Administration 
knew, for Mahony was almost daily asking the 
Administration what he was arrested for. We 
never knew a weaker argument and a more 
atrocious case than is here presented. The or- 
gan says that "By acquitting without question 
the government confesses substantially he was 
'juilty of no crime!" And the government 
knew this the moment he was incarcerated, as 
well as the moment when they gave the order 
for his release. We hardly think the Sentinel 
will claim that the government arrests its vic- 
tims in hopes to hi'tnt up aftericards charges 
against them. This would be re-enacting the 
bloody and damnable deeds of the old Concei- 
gierre, in France, where they dug the graves, 
made the coffins, then sent out their provost 
marshals to hunt up the victims to fill them. 
"The moment he is found to be guilty of no 
crime."' says this organ, "he is liberated." 
Now, how did the government arrive at the 
conclusion that he was innocent just at that 
particular time? No court or tribunal had 
been organized to determine the fact. No wit- 
nesses had been sworn — no charges preferred, 
and yet all at once— just after the election — 
the Administration found out that Mahont 
was guilty of no crime, and he was set at lib- 
erty! What a mockery of common sense and 
justice! 

From Mahont's case, the Sentinel offers the 
Eaby Act plea in reference to Mrs. Bkins- 
made's case, as follows: 

'•The case of Mrs. Brinsmade, in New York, 
is one in point. Some official, (it is not yet 
certain who, but supposed to be Marshal Ken- 
nedy,) took the responsibility of arresting 
Mrs. Brinsmade and locked her up The case 
was finally brought to the attention of the au- 
thorities, and she was promptly released. 
None denounce the arrest more heartily and 
pointedly than the immediate friends of the 
Administration." 

Yes, yes, "some official" did take the re- 
sponsibility—but he took it from the Presi- 
dent's order commanding the arrest of all per- 
sons for "disloyal practices"— his appointees 
to be the sole judges. There is where the re- 
sponsibility came from. Mrs. B's case "was 
finally brought to the attention of the author- 
ities," ehl Yes, as soon as the elections, had 
opened their eyes and their ears, and set their 



hearts to palpitating, then they listened to the 
appeals of the poor, weak woman, and not be- 
fore. If so flagitious and iniquitous an arrest 
had been made, and a young and beautiful fe- 
male so long imprisoned in a common ward 
station house, without authority from head- 
quarters, think you the scoundrel who did it 
would wear the star of office another hour? 
No, he would be instantly dismissed, and a 
decent man put in his place, but he is still 
kept in office, a sufficient fact to our mind to 
warrant the belief that he is wanted for other 
nasty jobs But, says the organ, "the imme- 
diate friends of the Administration denounce" 
these outrages, and therefore we must draw 
the inference that it is guileless. Some of them 
have denounced them since the election, but 
not before. AVe challenge a single case to 
prove they denounced them before election, but- 
many Democrats did, and for doing so were 
called "traitors" and "tories" by these same 
organs. Theirs is a death-bed repentance. — 
The F>-yan Address and Gov. Seymour's 
speech denounced these arbitrary and illegal 
arrests, and fordoing so the Sentinel and other 
abolition sheets — befoi'e election — denounced 
Ryan and Gov. Seymour. 
Again, says the Custom-IIouse organ : 

" We have felt that a great many foolish, 
and even oppressive things were being done by 
these government agents. But the emergency 
of the government required the creation of 
agents of the character, and the evils complain- 
ed of are almost inevitable and inseparable 
from their appointment. The government, it- 
self, however, has shown no disposition to tyr- 
annize. These agents will learn their duties 
and learn not to overstep the bounds of a sen- 
sible discretion ; or, failing in that, will be 
speedily displaced, and their places iiUed with 
better men." 

We have seen no displacement of these bad 
men as yet. The first part of the above para- 
graph any man of sense and self-respect will say 
amen to. But it will be hard to convince any 
man of ordinary intelligence that any ijossible 
" emergency" has arisen, or is likely to arise, 
in the Northern States, whereby this new batch 
of officers are, or may be necessary. What act 
have they done, or can they do, (save to vio- 
late law and outrage personal rights,) that 
may not be done by U. S. Marshals, their dep- 
uties, or any other civil, executive officer ? — 
What possible necessity has arisen, or can arise, 
in all human probability, in the loyal states, 
making it necessary, or even excusable, to ar- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



233 



rest any man without ''due process of law ?" — 
And, what nOjBessity for arresting men without 
warrant, and suspending the privilege of habe- 
as corpus, except it be the intention to "tyr- 
annize" over men for their politieal opinion's 
sake 1 What possble harm could come to the 
government, to permit men to be arrested, when 
charged with some crime, and taken before 
some competent, civil tribunal, to be tried ? — 
Does any one believe, a man thus arrested, in 
any loyal state, and proven guilty, would escape 
punishment ? A bare suspicion of such a thing 
would be an imputation on the loyalty of citi- 
zen jurors, and tlie fidelity of our judiciary. 

We therefore insist, that, no matter what the 
original intentions, this Provost Marshal busi- 
ness is a gross imposition on the people — an 
imputation on their loyalty — a political engine, 
to force political action in violation of political 
opinions — and until we can be shown some?!c- 
cessity for it — the accomplishment of legiti- 
mate Government purposes, that cannot be ac- 
complished by other means, we will denounce 
it in all its phases as not only "foolish" and 
"oppressive," but a disgrace to the nineteenth 
century. 

In view of the verdict of the people iu the 
overwhelming political revolution, of '62, the 
Sentinel had gravely come to the following 
quite sensible conclusion: 

"The nature of our government, as well as 
the temper of the people, clearly reveal the 
folly of any attempt at tyranny or abuse of 
power on the part of those entrusted with the 
administration." 

All of which we endorse without &butQV an if. 
In conclusion, let us suggest, that if the Ad- 
ministration believes that Provost Marshals are 
necessary, and that it does not intend them to 
overawe the people in the exercise of their civil 
and political rights, would not the said Admin- 
istration remove all incompetents as soon as 
their "foolish" incompetency was discovered? 
Few if any greater crimes can be committed 
against individual rights than to deprive a man 
of his liberty without cause. And yet, the 
President don't remove that miserable tyrant, 
Kennedy, who arrested Mrs. Brinsmade, nor 
the contemptible wretch that arrested Mahoney 
who, the Sentinel admits were arrested without 
cause. Now, if our peacable and law-abiding 
citizens are to be arrested andplunged into the 
filth and debris of a military prison, with not 
even a charge against them, and the President 
16 



after knoioing all the facts, as he does now 
know them, at least, will not remove his ap- 
pointees who are guilty of such gross outrages, 
then he becomes person.illy the guilty party, 
and is inaugurating a system of despotism that 
may yet cost the loyal North seas of blood to 
crush out, after it has fairly got a foothold. 

One word as to what the Sentinel says about 
the friends of the Administration condemning 
these "oppressive" outrages. Did the Senti- 
nel denounce the arrest of Mrs. Brinsmade 
before the election'? Not a bit of it. On the 
other hand, if our memory is not at fault, it 
glorified in the arrest of a "she secessionist." 
Did the Sentinel or State Journal denounce 
the arrest of Mahoney before the election? — 
By no means; on the contrary, the latter did, 
even if the former did not, glory in the arrest 
of the "traitor Mahoney." Now, thatte is ac- 
knowledged to have been innocent, that Jacobin 
organ is mum. Not a note has it to sound 
against the outrage — but 0, how the Abolition 
press howled when Booth and Daniels, of 
Wisconsin, were arrested for crimes they glo- 
ried in — crimes of '■'■positive defiance''^ to law, 
which are to-day the corner stone of the Re- 
publican 2ilatform of Wisconsin. 

Great God! is this that "liberty" we have 
heard preached so often from Republican pul- 
pits? Is it that "freedom" so often harrangued 
from Republican rostrums? Is it that "free 
speech" so often sung in the Republican cloister 
and peddled through the columns of the Repub- 
lican press? Is this party of boasted "free- 
dom" about to turn the oppressors and enslav- 
ers of the white race, and impose upon it the 
necessities of becoming "hewers of wood and 
drawers of water" for Con2;o masters? Strange 
that a great party that no longer ago than I§60 
had emblazoned on its victorious banners 
"Liberty and Freedom," should, at the first 
moment of its drunken success, raise the 
standard of worse than Roman slavery. Read- 
er, beware, for we have the lesson of the Qua- 
kers to guide us, who for centuries preached 
religious "freedom" and "toleration," and the 
moment they got the power, they went to 
hanging and persecuting all who did not be- 
lieve in their dogmas. The case of Roger 
Williams is not forgotten — nor will the politi- 
cal debaucheries and vile salvonic persecutions 
of Abolitionism be forgotten, so long as de- 
based humanity may steal that oft abused word 



^'234 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



"Liberty," as a clonk for slavery and oppres- 
Bion. 

This chapter has been extended much be- 
yond our original design, but the principles 
involved are of such vast importance, that we 
feel justified in going beyond that design, 
though the largest 12 mo. volume would not 
contain the half we had selected undter this 
head. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

DESPOTISJI, USURPATIONS, INALIENABLE RIGHTS 
TRAMPLED UPON, Etc. 

Despotism Seeks the Semblance of Loyalty. ..Solicitor 
Whiting perveits Judge Taney's Decision. ..ProTost 
Marshal Fry Acts Thereon. ..Star Chamber. ..Lawa by 
Proclamation in England. ..Kidnapping in New York... 
Gov. Hunt on Arbitrary Arrests. ..The Case of Gen. Stone 
...Beecher on Arbitrary Arrests... A Nice Point to Silence 
a Press. ..Geo. W. Jones vs. Wm. II. Seward. ..Judge 
Gierke's Decision... A Young Lady Fined .|1.5 for Playing 
the "fSonnio Blue Flag"... Burnside Favors the Arrest 
of Males and Females that wear Butternut Badges... 
Opening the Prison Doors. ..Case of Gov. Tod and Others 
...Opinion of Judge Van Trump..." New York Journal 
of Commerce " on the Powers of the Provost Marshal... 
Case of Judge Constable. ..Liberated from the Bastile... 
Atrocious Sentiments by Senator Wilson. ..Cincinnati 
Prison Full. ..Other Acts of Despotism. ..General Conclu- 
sions. ..Vallandigham's Acts compared with Loading Re- 
publicans. ..Loyalty of Democrats. ..Disloyalty of Re- 
publicans. ..$500 Reward for a Disloyal Democrat Not 
Taken. ..The Writ o( ILibeas Corpus the Palladium of 
Our Liberties... Extracts of the JMagna Charta— Wrung 
from King Juhn... Lord Campbell's Boast... English Bill 
of Rights..." Body of Liberties " Brought by tlio May- 
flower. ..The Bill in tlie Declaration. ..Virginia Bill of 
Rights. ..Massaehusettii' "Declaration of Rights" in 
17S0...Froni Bill of Rights in Our Constitutisn... General 
Kemarks on Suspension of the Writ of Uabeas Corpus... 
Law of Suspected Persons. ..A Leaf from French History, 
by Allison. ..Our Parallels. ..Thiers on French Confisca- 
tion. ..Danton's Prediction. ..General Remarks. ..Black- 
stone on tbo English Habeas Corpus. ..Our Constitution 
Applied. ..The Ordinance of 1787 Applicable. ..What Our 
Fathers Tuought of it...Pinckney, Rutledge, Morris and 
Millson on the Habeas Corpus. ...Judge Curtis on "Loy- 
alty" and Habeas Corpus... A Scathing Speech. ..Mr. 
Chase's Opinion of Loyalty. ..The Roman Law and Per- 
sonal Liberty. ..St, Paul on Aibitrary Violations of Law 
Judge*Festus and King Agrippa Respected the Roman 
Law..." New York Independent " on Arbitrary Arrests 
...What a Conservative Republican Thinks of it. ..Presi- 
dent's Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus : His 
Proclamation. ..Congress on Arliitrary Arrests. ..Official 
Vote. ..Supreme Court of Wiscon.sin on Suspending the 
Writ. 

DESPOTISM SEEKS THE SEMBLANCE OP LE- 
GALITY. 

It is very natural, and has been, in all ages 
of the world, lor Despots to claim they were 
acting under legal authority. The following 
"opinion" by Solicitor Whiting is quite in 
point: 

"WAR DEPARTMFNT, ") 
"Provost Marshal General's Office, y 
"Washington, D. C, July 1, 18(53. J 
"Oircular, No. 36. 

"The following opinion of Hon. William 
Whiting, Solicitor of the War Department, is 



published for the information and guidance of 
all officers of this Bureau: 

^^Arrest of Deserters — Habeas C9rpus. — Opin- 
ion. 

'•It is enacted in the 7th section of the act 
approved March 3, 1863, entitled "An act for 
enrolling and calling out the national forces, 
and for other purposes,'' that it shall be the 
duty of the Provost Marshals appointed under 
this act, 'to arrest all deserters^ whether regu- 
lars, volunteers, militia men, or persons called 
into the service under this or any other act of 
Congress, wherever they maybe found, and to 
send them to the nearest military commander, 
or military post.' 

"If a writ of habeas corpus shall be issued 
by a State court, and served upon the Provost 
Marshaf while he holds under arrest a desert- 
er, before he has had opportunity 'to send him 
to the nearest military commander, or military 
post,' the Provo.«t Marshal is not at liberty to 
disregai'd that process. 'It is the duty of the 
Marshal, or other person having custody of the 
prisoner, to make known to the Judge, or 
Court, by a proper return, the authority by 
which he holds him in custo'dy. But after this 
return is made, and the State Judge or Court 
judicially apprised that the party is in custody 
under the authority of the United States, they 
can proceed no farther.' 

"They then know that the prisoner is with- 
in the dominion and jurisdiction of another 
government, and that neither the writ of habeas 
corpus, nor any other process issued under 
state authority, can pass over the line of di- 
vision between the two sovereignties. He is 
then within the dominion and exclusive juris- 
diction of the United States. If he has com- 
mitted an offence against their laws, their tri- 
bunals alone can punish him. If he is wrong- 
fully imprisoned, their judicial tribunals can 
release him and afford him redress. And, al- 
though as we have said, it is the duty of the 
marshal, or other person holding him, to make 
known, by a proper return, the authority under 
which he retains him, it is, at the same time, 
imperatively his duty to obey ihe process of the 
United States, to hold the prisoner in custody 
under it, and to refuse obedience to the man- 
date or process of any other government. And 
consequently, it is his duty not to take the 
prisoner, nor suffer him to be taken before a 
siate judge or court upon a Aaiea* cor^ws is- 
sued. under state authority. No state judge or 
court, after they are judicially informed that 
the party is imprisoned under the authority of 
the United States, has any right to interfere 
with him, or require him to be brought before 
them. And if the authority of a state, in the 
form of judicial process or otherwise, should 
attempt to control the marshal, or other au- 
thorized officer or agent of the United States, 
in any respect, in the custody of his prisoner, 
it would be his duty to resist it, and to call to 
his aid any force that might be necessary to 
maintain the authority of law against illegal 
interference. No judicial process, whatever 
form it may assume, can have any lawful au- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAr-BOOK. 



235 



thority outside of the limits of the jurisdiction 
of the court or judge by whom it is issued, and 
an attempt to enforce it beyond these bounda- 
ries is nothing less than lawless violence. 

"The language above cited is that of Chief 
Justice Taney in the decision of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, in the case of Able- 
man vs. Booth. (21 IlowarcVs Reports.) 

If a writ of habeas corpus shall have been 
sued out from a State Court, and served upon 
the Provost Marshal while he holds the desert- 
er under arrest, and before he has had time or 
opportunity 

"To send him to tlio nearest military coniraaniler, or mili- 
tary post," 

It is the duty of the Marshal to make to the 
Court a respectful statement, in writing, as a 
return upon the writ, setting forth, 

'•1st. That tbo respondent is Provost Marshal, duly ap- 
pointed by the President of the United States, in accord- 
ance with the provisions of the act aforesaid. 

"2d. That the person held was arrested tiy said Marshal 
as a deserter, in accordance with the provision of the 7th 
section of the act aforesaid. That it is the legal duty of 
the respondent to deliver over said deserter "to the near- 
est military commander, or military post," and that the 
respondent intends to perform such duty as soon as possi- 
ble. 

3d. "That the production of said deserter in court 
would be inconsistent with, and in violation of the duty of 
the respondent as provost marshal, and that the said de- 
serter is now held under authority of the United States. — 
For these reasons, and without intending any disrespect 
to the honorable Judge who issued procoss, lie declines to 
produce said deserter, or to subject him to the procos.s of 
the court." 

"To the foregoing, all other material facts 
may be added. 

"Such return having been made, the juris- 
diction of the state court over that case ceases. 
If the state court shall proceed with the case 
and make any formal judgment in it, except 
that of dismissal, one of two courses may be 
taken. (1) The case may be carried up, by 
appeal or otherwise, to the highest court of the 
state, and removed therefjom by writ of error 
to the Supreme Court; or, (2) the judge may 
be personally dealt with in accordance with 
law, and with such instructions as may here- 
after be issued in each case. 

"JAMES B. FPvY, 
"Pi'ovost Marshal General." 

Now, to claim that Chief Justice Taney, in 
the Booth-Ableman case, endorsed the arbi- 
trary power claimed in the foregoing is one of 
the most abomniable stretches of Judicial license 
we have met with. Judge Taney simply says 
that when a state court is made acquintedwith 
the fact that a man is '■'■imprisoncd^^ under a 
'■'■process of the United States," such state 
court can proceed no further. This is good 
law, and u© sound lawyer will dispute it, but 
when the pettifoggers of the Administration 
ask us to assume that a militai-y order is a ju- 
dicial "process." such as Chief Justice Taney 
alluded to, it is asking more than'can be granted 



This shows to what desperation the authors) f 
despotic power are reduced.. ■< 

LAWS BY PROCLAMATION IN ENGLAND— OUR 
STAE CIIAMBEK. 

Lord SoMEUs, in denouncing the despotism 
of the Stuarts, said: 

"We had a privy council in England, with 
great and mixed powers; we suffered under it 
long and much: All the rolls "of Parliament 
are full of complaints and remedies; but none 
of them effectual till Charles the First's time. 
The Star Charnber was but a spawn of our coun- 
cil., and was called so only because it sat in the 
usual council chamber. It was set up as a for- 
mal court in the third year of Henry the Eighth, 
in very soft words, 

"To punish great riots, to restrain offenders too bi" for or- 
dinary justice." 

***** 
"i?M< in a little time it made the nation trem- 
ble. The Privy Council came at last to make 
laws by proclamation, and the Star Chamber 
ruijied those that would not obey." 

The arrest of actual deserters is well enough, 
and all courts should and would remand them 
whenever it appeared that they were deserters. 
But the great benefit of the writ is to ascertain 
the fact whether the accused were in truth de- 
serters, or, whether in fact innocent men had 
not been arrested through mistake, or through 
the avaricious desire to get the bounty. The 
writ is not to encourage guilt, but to protect 
innocence. The following will illusti-ate the 
case in point: 

[From the New York World, Nov. 3, 1863.] 
"kidnapping in new YORK. 

"An instance of the gross injustice which 
seems inseparable from the arbitrary military 
system inaugurated by Secretary Stanton has 
recently come to lightr In October, 1861, six- 
ty-two young men were induced to enlist in 
what they were told was 'Company L, Colonel 
Serrell's Regiment of Volunteer Engineers,' 
the pay being for privates seventeen dollars 
per month. The compaog^, when organized, 
was, without authority of Governor Morgan, 
taken to Washington, where for several days 
neither the War Department nor the General- 
in-Chief would recognize them. Subsequently, 
and without any new muster, they were desig- 
nated as Fourth New York Independent Bat- 
tery. The men protested in writing, but ia 
vain — the pay is thirteen dollars per month. 
They have been in eleven actions, and have 
distinguished themselves. They applied 
through counsel to the adjutant-general to be 
attached to Colonel Serrell's regiment, in pur- 
suance of their enlistment, or to be discharged. 
This was refused; yiet neither by statute nor 
army regulations have the government the pow- 
er to transfer men from one arm of service to 
another in the volunteer servicQ^ 



236 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



"Several of the men, feeling that they had 
been grossly wronged, after the battle of Get- 
tysburg deserted and reached New York. A 
habeas corpus was taken out before Mr. Justice 
Gierke, they having been arrested as deserters 
by a sergeant of artillery. Justice Gierke dis- 
charged them from the Fourth Independent 
Battery, for the reason that they never enlisted 
therein, and also./>07« the service oi ih.Q United 
States, for the reason that they were enlisted 
und'er false pretenses. A copy of this order, 
certified and under seal, was given to the men. 
Last week a government detective arrested one 
of these men, read the oider, and sent the man 
to Governor's Island, from whence, it is said, 
he has been sent South. 

It is very clear that this is a flagrant instance 
of downright kidnapping, and that by no rule 
of equity can it be justified. It is monstrous 
that under our system of laws, in which there 
are so many provisions for guarding the rights 
of the citizen and insuring the faith of contracts, 
men can be compelled to do military service 
without the slightest regard to law, justice, or 
their personal rights. Congress ought to invest- 
igate this matter. 

WASHINGTON HUNT ON ARBITRARY ARRESTS. 

The people of New York, without distinction 
of party, met in Union Square, New York, in 
May, 1863, twenty-five thousand strong, to take 
into consideration the subject of personal lib- 
erty. There was speaking at four stands.— 
The following letter was read, from Washing- 
ton Hunt, whom our opponents have so often 
supported for high offices in the Empire State: 
LOCKPORT, May IG, 18G.3. 
"Gentlemen: — I have received your letter 
inviting me to attend the proposed meeting at 
Union Square. It is out of my power to eome, 
but I wish to avail myself of the occasion to 
declare my emphatic condemnation of the re- 
cent attempts to subject the people of the loyal 
states to an irresponsible and arbitrary system 
of military domination. 

"While we are willing to submit to the great- 
est sacrifices, in a patriotic spirit, for the pres- 
ervation of the Union, it may as well be un- 
derstood that wc will not consent to be bereft 
of any of our constitutional rights. We have 
lost none of these rights in consequence of the 
southern rebellion. 

"The Administration ought to comprehend 
that it is amenable to public opinion, and that 
its conduct and policy are a legitimate subject 
ef popular discussion and criticism. It is for 
the perpetuation of a free constitutional gov- 
ernment, and for this only, that the country 
has been so willing to exhaust its best blood 
and place its vast resources at the disposal of 
the national authority. God forbid that the 
American people should allow the strength thus 
imparted to be turned against tnemselves, and 
a military despotism erected on the ruins of 
public liberty! So far as New York is concern- 



ed, let it be proclaimed from the house tops 
that no man within her borders 

"Shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without 
due procefs of law." 

"With great regard, ycurs truly. 

"WASHIIJfGtON HUNT. 
"Messrs. Gideon J. Tucker, John Hardy, A. Mathew- 
sou, and otheis." 

THE CASE OF GEN. STONE. 

"We have a case in point, in that of Gen. 
Stone, of the great wi'ong and injustice liable 
to be done by arbitrary proceedings against 
individuals. Gen. Stone it is remembered, 
was arrested while in the exercise of a com- 
mand, sent to one of the military prisons, de- 
nied information as to the cause of his arrest, 
and refused any opportunity to explain any 
proceedings of his own which might have seem- 
ed unusual. After several months of confine- 
ment, he was released without trial, and it is 
now announced that he was assigned to duty 
in the Department of the Gulf, — the President 
being satisfied, of course, that he was wrong- 
fully arrested and imprisoned. How easily 
could this wrongful arrest and imprisonment 
have been avoided." 

BEECHER ON ARBITRARY ARRESTS. 

Even the most radical of all radicals; Henet 
Ward Beecher, sees danger ahead, in the 
way of arbitrary arrests. In speaking of 
Vallandighaji's case he said: 

"It would be better for the country that ten 
thousand brave men were slain on the battle 
field, than that one should be deprived of even 
the least of his guarranteod rights at this time. 
The heart of the nation is in no mood to be 
thus despotically tampered with." 

GETTING DOWN TO A NICE POINT. 

[From the New York World.] 

"We ask all candid liber ty-lovinsr American 

citizens of both parties if the foUowiug does 

not smack rather too much of Venice or Poland 

for this free country: 

"1IE.4DQUARTERS MILITARY GOVERNOR, I 

"Alexandria, Va., Sept. IG, 'Go. / 
^^ Proprietor Alexandria Gazette: 

tigin: — Observing in your issue of this evening an arti- 
cle boldly he.aded 'Virginia Legislature,' which articlecon- 
tains the proceedings of the Confederate Legislature of 
Virginia, and hence, is a public recognition upon your 
part of a state government in Virginia opposed to the fed- 
eral government, the general commanding directs me to 
inform you that the repetition of this act will be visited 
with a suspension of your paper. 

"The existence of a paper in Alexandria known to be 
hostile totlje government he represents, will be tolerated 
so long only as there appears nothing in it offensive to 
loyal people. Respectfully, 

•^ ' "KOLLIN C. GALE, A. A. G." 

Have not things come to a pretty pass when 
an American newspaper published within a few 
miles of the capital of the country is threaten- 
ed with suppression, because the heading to 
some of the news displeases an ignorant mili- 
tary officer? The phrase "Virginia Legisla- 
ture" is literally correct, no matter what the 



SCRAPS FEO-M MY SCRAP-BOOK 



237 



political crimes of that body may have been. 
A gun is a gun, whether in the hands of a fed- 
eral or a confederate soldier, and an organized 
state legislature, in or out of the Union, is very 
properly distinguished by the name of the state 
it legislates for. The "general commanding" 
who inspired the above order may have a 
'■bold" head of his own, but it certainly has 
very little brains or dism-etion inside of it. 

GEO. W. JONES vs. WM. H. SEWAKD. 

Judge Clerkk, of the Superior Court of the 
city of New York, in which the case of George 
W. Jones r^. William H. Seward, an action 
for alleged false imprisonment, is pending, has 
rendered an important decision. The question 
before the court arose upon a motion to remove 
the case from the state court to the United 
States Court for the northern districtW New 
York. 

Judge Clerke, in giving the decision of the 
<!0urt; said: 

"The defendant stated in his petition for this 
order that the action was brought for acts al- 
leged to have been done by him as Secretary of 
State for the United States of America, under 
authority derived by him from the President of 
the United States, in causing the plaintiff to be 
arrested and imprisoned, or for some other 
wrong alleged to have been done to the plain- 
tiff under such authority during the present 
rebellion, and that it therefore comes within 
the act of Congress of March 3d, 1863, rela- 
ting to the writ of habeas corpus, by which a 
case may be removed to another court. 

"The question to be determined being 
whether the President of the United States, 
during a rebellion, can arrest any person not 
subject to military law, without the process of 
some court, this was a question that would 
arise under the constitution of the United 
States. ■^ * * '■'•' * '^ 

"It cannot of course be pretended by the 
most ai-dent advocate of this high Presidential 
prerogative that the constitution confers it in 
set terms There is nothing in that instru- 
ment that can be tortured into the confei'ring 
of such power upon the President in his civil 
capacity, and this, it appears to me, plainly 
disposes of the question; for it would be as- 
serting the greatest contradiction and strangest 
anomaly to say that absolute and unlimited 
power, equal to any exercised by Czar or Sul- 
tan, can be implied by a constitution which 
gives no power to any department that is not 
specially set forth, except simply the conse- 
quent right to employ all legal means necessary 
to the execution of the power. 

"If there is anything beyond all controversy 
in the constitutional history of the nation it is 
that the purpose of the constitution and the 
provisions which it contains were for a consid- 
erable time before its adoption thoroughly dis- 
cussed by their people and their delagates in 
convention, and any man professing to confer 



unlimited power on any department of the gov- 
ernment, on any pretext, would not have been 
deemed sane." 

After referring to the constitutional history 
of the United States and England, the learned 
judge remarks: 

"Could it be supposed that the framers of 
the constitution intended any such power as 
that claimed in the present case, either express 
or implied? If they intended a dictatorship to 
exist under any emergencij^ they would not 
leave it to the chief-executive to assume it when 
he may in his discretion declare necessity re- 
quired it, but would have provided that this 
necessity should be declared by congress, and 
that the legislature alone should select the 
person who should exercise it. That the Pres- 
ident can assume such a power is an extrava- 
gant assumption which cannot be entertained 
by any court. No such inquiry can arise un- 
der the constitution of the United States. It 
does not reach the proportions or stature of a 
question. 

"Mr. Lincoln as a military commander can 
possess no greater power than if he were not 
President. Suppose the constitution vested 
the commander-in-chief of the army and navy 
in some person other than the President — 
could this functionary subvert the constitution 
and laws under the plea of military necessity? 
Certainly not." 

The learned judge thus concludes: , 

"The power for which the defendant con- 
tends is plainly not necessary for the safety of 
the nation, and is not conferred by the Consti- 
tution. AVhen that safety shall be endangered 
within the immediate theatre of insurrection 
or war, the commander-in-chief and his subor- 
dinates are judges of the occasion, but beyond 
that the ordinary course of proceedings in the 
courts of justice will be sufficient to punish any 
persons who furnish information, afford aid to 
an enemy or betray their country. In cases of 
emergency, caused by invasion or insurrection, 
the powers exrressly given by the constitution, 
and the acts of Congress to repel the one and 
suppress the other are ample and effective. — 
It requires no exercise of an extraordinary 
power over the sacred rights of personal liber- 
ty to accomplish all this. It is manifest that 
it is beyond all controversy, that those rights 
in war or in peace, during invasion or domes- 
tic violence, even during the hideous rebellion 
which now confronts us, exist in cases which I 
have stated and are inviolable. 

"The President, therefore, whether in his 
civil or military capacity as commander-in 
chief, has no such power as that claimed for 
him. 

"The ground upon which the application is 
made has no foundation in right. It cannot be 
entertained as a question in any state, or in 
the United States court. The only question in 
this motion worthy of consideration, and which 
can be entertained, does not arise under the 
constitution of the United States, but is clear- 
ly within the jurisdiction of this court." 



238 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



A TOUNG LADY FINED FIFTEEN DOLLARS FOR 
PLATING A SECESII TUNE ON THE PIANO. 

No one act of Napoleon III has been more 
virtuously denounced than the suppression of 
the Marseilles Hymn, and the punishment of 
those who sang or played that air. As a part 
of the correlative history of the times, Tvegive 
the following from the New Orleans police re- 
ports, as it appeared in the New Orleans Era of 
April 29th, 1863: 
"Provost Court — Judge A. De B. Hughes, presiding. 

"Miss Claiborne Massey, arrested for playing 
the air of the Bonnie Blue Flag at the resi- 
dence of her parents, was before the Court. 
The Hon. Michael Hahn appeared to defend 
her, and remarked that he did not think the 
playing of the air without the words constitu- 
ted much of an offense. He said that the 
■watchman had heard the air played, but at the 
time did not think it necessary to make the ar- 
rest. He afterwards consulted the Sergeant, 
■whe also thought it was not necessary to make 
the arrest: but he afterwards went back and 
made the arrest. Judge Hughes said that in 
consideration of the high character of the able 
gentleman who defended the lady, he would be 
as lenient as the strict requirements of his du- 
ties would permit, and therefore fined her only 

In the local column we find this notice of 
the affair: 

"A young lady, named Miss Claiborne Mas- 
sey, of the highest respectability, was arrested 
last night and locked up for playing the Bon- 
nie Blue Flag. She was released to appear be- 
fore the Provost Court. This morning she was 
fined ^15." 

Is it in the power of the human imagination 
to conceive of any possible harm for a young 
lady, accomplished, and of the "highest re- 
spectability," playing any tune on a piano? 
Did Napoleon III. ever exceed this Police de- 
monstration? Young ladies must be careful 
iow they play "Dixie." The substitution of 
"John Brown's Soul is Marching On," will 
save their §15. 

MORE DISLOYAL PRACTICES. 

By the following telegram it appears that all 
•who wear butternut emblems — male or female 
— are to be arrested: 

"Cincinnati, April 20, '63— Gen. Burnside 
approves the order issued by Gen. Carrington for 
the arrest of members of the K. G. C, on the 
ground that they are enemies to the Govern- 
ment. He also favors the arrest of persons, 
male or female, wearing butternut emblems. — 
Arrests are now being made, and examples 
will be made." 

Madness rules the hour. How long will it 



be before Democrats will be compelled to cut 
down and burn up any butternut shade trees 
they may have set out, on pain of being arrest- 
ed and "made examples of?" It cannot be 
possible the American people sanction these 
things. 

OPENING THE PRISON DOORS. 

The Washington correspondent of the Chi- 
cago Times says: 

"This morning it is announced that the 
prison doors are open, and that the victims of 
private malice and official spite are free to de- 
part. Are we to bow down in the dust and 
thank the man whose name is signed to the or- 
der of release? Rather let him tremble; and 
not him alone. The administration cannot, by 
this taA'dy act, atone for the misery they have 
inflicted, nor can they bring back the happi- 
ness they have ruthlessly destroyed. The pun- 
ishment of tyrants is sure to come, and they 
cannot escape theirs. 

"This act of releasing prisoners of state is a 
mere caprice. There is no more reason for 
doing it now than there was three or six 
months ago. There was no cause for the ar- 
rests at first, and there is no cause for the ter- 
mination of the confinements now that did not 
exist then." 

Belshazzar never trembled till he saw the 
handwriting on the wall, and then he was 
afraid. Wonder if the Administration did not 
read on the walls of the old bastile, the dread- 
ful words, '■'■Mene tekel uphaninf^ 

THE case OF GOV. TOD AND OTHERS. 

It will be remembered that Gov. Tod, of 
Ohio, was recently arrested upon a charge of 
kidnapping Doctor Olds. In the Court of 
Common Pleas of Fairfield county, in that 
State, a motion was made by Stoughton 
Bliss, one of the parties arrested in the same 
case, for a transfer of the cause to the Circuit 
Court of the United States for the Southern 
District of Ohio. The motion was based upon 
the act of Congress of March 3d, 1863, which 
provided for such transfer, and also provided 
that the defendants in such cases, by proving 
that they were "acting under color of author- 
ity" from the President, or of officers deriving 
their authority from him, should be entitled to 
discharge. Judge Van Trump, before whom 
the motion was made, in a brief but singularly 
clear and logical review, showed the unconsti- 
tutionality of the law, and overruled the mo- 
tion. We append an extract of one point made 
byjhim, which, to our mind, was alone ample 
justification for his decision: 



SCRAPS FROM MT SCRAP BOOK. 



2-^9 



"What is the legal s.tatus of the claim made 
by the petitioner to remove his case into the 
Circuit Court of the United States? It is, in 
ray opinion, nothing more or less than an at- 
tempt to transfer the criminal jurisdiction of 
the State Court into that of the Federal tribu- 
nals. If such is the scope and effect of this 
act of March 3d, 1863, then I have no hesita- 
tion in pronouncing it unconstitutional. If the 
Congress of the United States have no consti- 
tutional power to modify, abolish or repeal the 
law of a state crime, it is a logical deduction, 
in my opinion, from which there is no escape, 
that they are powerless in changing the forum 
of trial of such crime. Has not Congress the 
same power to Measure and fix the punishment 
of crime under a state law, or to enact a code 
of evidence, or pi'actice, for its prosecution, as 
to erect the forum of trial?" 

TOWERS OF THE PROVOST JI.\RSHAL. 

The New York Journal of Commtrce thus 
sets forth the cunning devices of the conscrip- 
tion act, by means of the created Provost Mar- 
shals, to act as spies, detectives, &c.: 

"This Provost Marshal General will be one 
of the most tremendous officials in the country. 
The bill allows him and the Secretary of War 
to do pretty much as they please with the 
rights and liberties of the citizen. There are 
three things which these Provost Marshals are 
specially required to do : 

"One is, to arrest deserters, and send them 
to the nearest commander, which is necessary 
and proper. 

"The second is, to enquire into and report all 
treasonable practices. If this means anything, 
it means that the Provost Marshal may employ 
any number of spies, like a veritable little 
tyrant, to pry into the private affairs of any 
person whom, in his high mightiness, he choses 
to suspect of 'treasonable practices.' If he 
happens to be a fierce radical, he may take the 
liberty of regarding every conservative as es- 
sentially a traitor — this being the prevalent 
view of the radical organs on that subject. 
The bill says nothing about the forcible entry 
of houses ; but that will undoubtedly be au- 
thorized in the 'rules and regulations' of the 
great functionary, the Provost Marshal Gen- 
eral. 

"The third duty of the Provost Marshal is, 
to 'detect, seize and confine spies.' This is a 
puzzler, and comes very queerly, after the 
paragraph authorizing the Provost Marshals to 
employ spies of their own to any extent. In- 
terpreted literally, and meaning real spies, 
•who come over from the enemy to inspect the 
strength of our forces, and the armament of 
our fortifications, it is a just and necessary 
regulation. The objection to it lies in this 
fact — that the Provost Marshal, or his ruper- 
ior is made the sole judge of what, and who, 
is a spy, and can arrest and confine him with- 
out judge or jury. 

"A Provost Marshal who holds that every 



conservative is a traitor, may also hold that 
some conservatives are constructively 'spies.' " 

Ifa Provost Marshal wanted to arrest a con- 
servative and put him in a fort, where he could 
stay out the balance of the war, nothing would 
be easier than to make a vague accusation that, 
at some time or other, he had communicated 
with some individual who is regarded as being 
traitorous in his proclivities. This would make 
the poor man constructively a spy. But the 
Provost marshal, and those above him, need 
not give explanations, unless they please. 
They may presume any man a spy — in the em- 
ployment and confidence of the enemy, and ar- 
rest and imprison him. 

"All this is the most odious kind of mai-tial 
law. It is wrong to impose it on this quifet and 
pecceful North." 

THE CASE OF JUDGE CONSTABLE. 

Tne papers and facts^ in this case are too 
voluminous to record in this work. We shall 
have to content ourself with a brief statement 
of the facts. 

The lass of Illinois declare it kidnapping to 
arrest a person without authority of law. In 
March, 1863, two persons were brought before 
Judge Constable, of the 4th Judicial Circuit 
of Illinois, charged with having violated the 
statutes against kidnapping. The proof against 
them was conclusive. They had arrested cer- 
tain persons, without showing any authority 
therefor. The Judge, as it was his sworn 
duty, held them for trial. For thus exercising 
his duty, Judge C was seized, and forcibly 
carried away from the duties of his office, and 
after having been kept in durance a long 
while, was finally liberated — no proof, or even 
charge of wrong appearing against him. 

LIBERATED FROJI THE BASTILB. 

The following, from the Pittsburgh Post 
covers a great variety of cases, and we copy it 
as a sample: 

"A number of gentlemen who were incar- 
cerated (Mahony and others) in a loathsome 
prison in Washington, upon imaginary charges 
and released the other day, without explana- 
tion, passed through our city last evening on 
their way to their respective homes. These 
enlarged captives paid us a a visit yesterday, 
and we refer the reader to our local column for 
an account of their incarceration, mal-treat« 
ment and release. Let the reader peruse this 
statement, and then reflect that it is not an ex- 
tract from the history of England dui'ing the 
'War of Roses,' nor a chapter depicting the 



240 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



horrors of the Bastile of the French Revolu- 
tion, but a single recital of personal suffering, 
inflicted by our boasted Government upon its 
own citizens. Let the reader ponder upon this 
brief narrative, if ho has patience, and see 
how it contrasts with similar persecutions of 
what we glibely term the 'Dark Ages' The 
tales of the Spanish Inquisitions, the English 
Star Chamber proceedings, have been held up 
as the scandal of those who sustained them, 
but we will venture to say that the Spanish In- 
quisition which was principally used to punish 
the Moorish enemies of Spain, not her own 
people, was little worse than the system of 
persecution invented by our War De- 
partment. There was, in fact, some 
excuse for Spain i^unishing the Moorish Ma- 
homedans, as she did. Those fierce and fa- 
natical soldiers, had overrun nearly one half 
of Asia and Africa, when they invaded Spain. 
For seven centuries they struggled for'the mas- 
tery of permanently inhabiting portions of the 
Spanish soil. A different race, wild with the 
furious belief of the Mousselmau. which inflict- 
ed unheard-of torments upon the proud Castil- 
ians, could expect nothing but the severest re- 
taliation. Whether justified in their proceed- 
ings against the Moores tr not, the reader will 
judge for himself. One thing we know, that 
her inquisition has been held up as among the 
cruelest of tortures, of even the remote era in 
which it was established ; but, when we re- 
flect on that era and our own, and that country 
now — on that nation's institutions then, and 
ours, until a few months ago, we are forced to 
believe that the proceedings of the Inquisition 
were excusable, compared to the outrages that 
have been inflicted by the orders of our AVar 
Department upon innocent and loyal people — 
arrested without a charge, when courts are 
open, incarcerated without a word of explana- 
tion, and dismissed after mouths of imprison- 
ment, without a hearing, were not bad enough, 
but the ingenuity of the fanatic invented an 
oath, which each of his victims is compelled to 
take, to the effect that he will not institute, or 
cause to he instituted any suit cu/ai7ist any au- 
thority of the United States., for his imprison- 
ment ! 

"It would appear, indeed, that human na- 
ture is the same always, and that the tortures 
inflicted by a Robespeirre are to be equalled 
in a more civilized country than that of Paris 
in his day, but the occasion which produces 
such monsters always creates an avenger of the 
people's injuries, and sooner or later vengeance 
overtakes their oppressors. Heaven grant that 
there may be no such trial in store for our 
groaning country, and that no dramatist may 
hereafter find in the present troubles of our 
nation incidents upon which to build more 
bloody dramas than have been written upon 
the horrid proceedings of the French Revolu- 
tion, and the atrocious secrets of her Bastile." 

ATEOCIOUS SENIIMENTS. 

During the canvass of 1863, Senator Wilson, 
of Massachusetts, spoke at Brunswick, Me., 



on the 27th of August, in the course of which 
be said: 

"The draft in New York is going on. There 
are forty-four noble and loyal regiments there 
to help the Government enforce the draft, and 
there is not a soldier among them who would 
not rather shoot a copperhead [a term applied 
to the Democrats generally]— ^m< a bullet 
through his brains — than a rebel soldier." 

Such atrocious senticzents might have gar- 
nished the bloody nomenclature of a Danton, 
a RoBESPEiERE, Or a Maeat, but in our 
free America, they sound like the Indian war 
whoop that precedes the barbarous carnival of 
torture. AVilson has no doubt been reading 
and feeding his blood-thirsty spirit on Dana's 
Bucchaneers. 

THE PRISONS FULL. 

The following appeared among the tele- 
graphic items of the date indicated : 

" CiNCiNSATi, June 2d, ISfiG. 

" All the Dayton prisoners, including W.T. 
Logan, editor of the Dayton Empire, have been 
released from prison. Two hundred and fifty 
prisoners arc still in co?ifinemi'nt." 

OTHER ACTS OF DESPOTISM. 

On ihe ISth of February, 1863, a political 
State Convention met at Frankfort, Ky., to 
nominate state ofiicers. No one ever did or 
ever could bring a charge, substantiated, 
against one of the delegates to that Conven- 
tion, that he or they were disloyal to the Gov- 
ernment of the Union. They met as loyal citi- 
zens had a right to "peacably assemble" 
under the First Article of the Amendments 
of the Constitution of their country. But one 
Col. Gilbert, no doubt actuated "By Author- 
ity" issued "General Order No. 31" command- 
ing them to Disperse, and forbidding them to 
make nominations, under penalty of military 
vengeance. We have the authority of the Chi- 
cago Journal (Rep.) of February 19, 1863, that 
this Colonel made a speech, in which he told 
them it would be useless to nominate, for their 
nominess should not be permitted to run, or to 
hold office if elected. AVe have other evidences 
of the intention of those in power to plunge us 
into a Military Despotism, some of which we 
shall present under another head. 

All these acts of despotism were endorsed 
by the radical press. AVe have before us, nu- 
merous articles in proof, but for want of room 
we present the following as a sample, from the 
Janesville (Wis.) Gazette, of June 9, 1863. 

"Our doctrine is that in war the laws of war 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BODK. 



241 



are supreme. Our belief is that we are now 
at war, the whole entire country, and ^that 
there is no place within the boundaries of the 
republic where the court martial mav not take 
the place of civil courts and thrust aside the 
laws of congress, in all things pertaining to 
the war. 

Our belief further is that the generals in 
command, subject to the President, are the 
only judges of the necessity of the time and 
occasion when such court martial or oi'der 
may be properly issued, and no civil court 
can interfere." 

This covers the whole ground of despotism, 
and demands the last sacrifice, and from these 
extraordinary demands and equally extraordi- 
nary exercise of power, we have the ''range' 
of those who are seeking to tyranize over the 
American people. 

GENERAL COXCLUSIOXS. 

From the foregoing evidences, and fii'ty limes 
more, which we have in our possession, but are 
compelled to omit, we cannot escape the gen- 
eral conclusion that it is the purpose of those 
in power and those who control the Adminis- 
tration, to plunge us into despotism — to finally 
destroy this old Union, and to build up a gov- 
ernment on its ruins, in accordance with the 
early motives of a privileged aristocracy, or 
limited monarchy. The Union as it was, we 
need never look for again. So the despots in 
power tell us, and if they can prevent it. that 
fabric of free government reared by the com- 
bined wisdom and through the mutual sacrifi- 
ces of a race of heroes and statesmen, will 
never be permitted again to shed the luster of 
its glory on a people that will soon lament the 
entire loss of civil liberty. 

Look at the evidence. Read it by the light 
of calm reflection, banishing all partizan pre- 
judices, burying all resentment, and tell us, 
who can, that our liberties are not in danger. 
Read the evidence thu.t thousands of innocent 
men and women have been immured in pris- 
ons, without charges, without a knowledge of 
their accusers, without witnesses, judges, jury 
■or trial — kept in durance vile for long months, 
and then "honorably discharged'' and forced, 
under military duress, to take an oath not to 
prosecute their persecutors. Can anything be 
found in the Spanish Inquisition, in the French 
Reign of Terror, or the Cromwellian ••'War of 
Roses," that exceeds this, in the degree of in- 
justice? 

Read and ponder the Vall.^ndigham case 
step by step. The "law of suspected persons" 



enacted in Order 3S, on purpose to create a 
crime, that even the last Congress dare not in- 
vent (this is saying much) — the system of spies 
and delators established to carry that "law" 
into efiFect — the midnight arrest by armed sol- 
diers — the mock trial, by a picked inquisition 
— the sentence, without a particle of proof to 
sustain a charge of crime — and the deportation 
of the victim. Can any man, in his senses, be- 
lieve that this picked commission had not act- 
ually determined on their verdict before a wit- 
ness was sworn? No trial, even in the Force or 
old Conceigerrie, was ever more predetermin- 
ed, and who was the prosecuting attorney or 
Judge Advocate? The same who a short time 
subsequent, was found guilty of secretly watch- 
ing a la.ly make her toilet, and was dismissed 
in disgrace from the office, but was reinstated 
by the President, probably for his services as 
prosecutor in the '\'allaxdigiiam trial: 

But why this outrr.ge on the person of Mr. 
v.? The President was forced to admit he 
had committed no oifense against the law, and 
the most that could be said was, that he had 
prematurely advocated peace. Few of his own 
party endorsed his views, though all would 
welcome the ends, as soon as honor and a uni- 
ted country would accomplish the purpose. — 
Mr. Vallandigham never advocated a disso- 
lution of the Union, but Congressman F. A. 
Conway did, yet the latter was unmolested, 
while the former was exiled. Mr. '\''. never 
denounced the Union as a "lie," nor as a 
"covenant with death — an agreement with 
hell." But 'SVendell Phillips and Lloyd 
Garrison did. Mr. Y. never said the Union 
was "not worth fighting for," but Secretary 
Chase did. Mr. V. never said, "the Union 
as it was, God forbid," but Thad Stevens 
did. Mr. Y. never advised a person not to en- 
list, but the Boston Commomoealth, the organ 
of Charles Sumner, did, and so did Stephen 
Foster. Mr. V. never said that under any 
circumstances "dissolution would be no mis- 
fortune." The Wisconsin State Journal did. 
Mr. Y. never advised resistance to la-w- 
Charles Sumner and a great many others did. 
Mr. Y. never said the "Constitution is the 
cause of all our troubles." Henry 'Ward 
Beecher did. Mr. Yallandigham never 
uttered a sentiment against the Union and the 
Constitution. Thousands of leading Republi- 
cans have done so. Then, why is Mr. Yal- 
landigham selected as the object of Adminis- 



242 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



tration vengeance, and those other men left un- 
molested. Echo answers, because Mr. V. votes 
the Democratic ticket, and the others never 
refused to sustain the Republican organization. 

In all the oppressive acts and arbitrary ar- 
rests, we do not know of one Republican ar- 
rested, nor do we know of one Democrat con- 
victed of a crime against his country. 

The tone of the Democracy, through their 
presses, and their leading speakers, even under 
all the gross provocations calculated to sting 
men to madness, has been loyal to their aov- 
ernment. We know of not one that has utter- 
ed a disloyal sentiment, or a desire to see the 
Union dissolved. How diflferent their mode of 
expression from the great array of speeches, 
resolves, editorials and sermons we have copied 
from their opponents, ranging through a long 
series of years, and yet those who oppose the 
Democracy have the brazen impudence to claim 
all the loyalty, while they invest the Democ- 
racy with every species of disloyalty. But the 
people have long since learned to judge of 
things and principles by what they are and not 
what they may seem to be. 

•The man who dares to dress misdeeds 

And color them with virtue's name, deserTes 

A double punishment from gods and men." 

\Ch. Johnson's Medea. 

A CUALLENGE FOR "'LOYALTY.'' 

The following appeared in the Wisconsin 
Patriot of September 15, 1863, and from that 
day to this no one has claimed the 

"five hundred dollars rew.\rd. 

"The above reward will be given to any man 
who will show that any Den*ocrat, north of 
Mason's and Dixon's line, by word or deed 
ever advocated a dissolution of the Union, or 
who ever expressed a desire, wish or thought, 
favorable to a dissolution under any circum- 
stances ever likely to take place. Now, if the 
Democratic party is disloyal, they are disloyal 
to the government of the Union, for disloyalty 
can exist in nothing else, and here is a first 
rate chance to get paid for the trouble of prov- 
ing the Democracy or any member of the party 
disloyal, if it can be done Now, if this can- 
not be done, and no one claims the reward for 
the discovery, then the cry of disloyalty 
against the Democratic party, must be voted a 
senseless and vile partizan scheme unworthy of 
honorable men. 

"On the contrary, we affirm, and no one 
dare dispute it. that the following named Re- 
publicans and Republican papers, &c.. have, 
in various ways expressed, either directly, or 
under certain contingencies, a desire for the 
dissolution of the Union, viz: 



Anson Burlingame, Mass., 

Z. Chandler, Mich., 

Thad. Stevens, Pa., 

Key. Dr. Bellows, N. Y., 

Chicago Tribune, 

J. A. Bingham, Ohio, 

A. a. Riddle, Ohio, 

Lloyd Garrison, Mass., 

Sen. Wade, Ohio, 

J. P. Hale, N. H., 

Ch. E. Hodges, N. Y.. 

78 Republicans, endorsers of 

the Uelper Book, 
Milwaukee Free Democrat, 
Gov. Andrews, Mass., 
Gerrit Smith, N. Y., 
Gov. Keeder, Pa., 
H. W. Beecher, N. Y., 
.t. K. Giddinge. Ohio, 
Wni. 0. Duvall, N. Y'., 
J. Watson Webb, N. Y., 
Boston Republicans, 1S59, 
Chas. Sumner, Mass., 
Free American, Pa., 
Mass. Gazette, 
Boston Liberator, 
Senator Wilson, Mass., 
Cincinnati (.lazette, 
Kennebec (Me.,) Journal, 
N. H. Statesman, 
Haverhill (Mass.) Gazette, 
Boston Sentinel. 
Fred Douglas, 
Kansas Redpath. 



M. D. Conway, Mass., 
F. A. Conway, Kan., 
Horace Greeley, N . Y., 

E. C. Ingersoll, 111., 
Owen Lovejoy, 111., 
Wendell Phillips, Mass., 
Republican State Conven- 
tion, Mass., 

Wm. Davis, Pa., 

F. A. Pike, Me.. 
W. P. Cutler, Ohio, 
.7. M. Ashley, Ohio, 
J. P. C. Shanks, Ind., 
John Ilutchings, Ohio, 
Republicans of Green Co., 

AVis., 
C. M. Clay, K v., 
C. F. Sedgwick, N. Y., 
J. H. Rice, Mich., 
Geo. W. Julian, Ind., 
David Wilmot, Pa., 
Horace Mann, Mass., 
State Journal, Wis., 
C. L. Sholes, Wis., 
S. M. Booth, Wis., 
Lebanon (0.) Star, 
Warren (0.) Chronicle, 
Xenia (0.) Torch Light, 
Senator Chase, Ohio, 
R. P. Spaulding, Ohio, 
Erastus Hopkins, 
H. M. Addison, 
R. W. Emerson, 
Boston Chromotype, 
New York Tribune, 

"Now, all the foregoing are leading Repub- 
licans, and the list might be almost indefinite- 
ly extended. We will not dodge behind amero 
empty charge, without proof that these men 
and presses are disloyal to the Government of 
this Union. We have their blistering record, 
as written by themselves before us. We have 
given that record to the public, and our Re- 
publican cotemporaries know we can do it 
again. Hence, they will not call on us for the 
proof, but being the guilty ones — being disloy- 
al themselves — they seek to escape the indig- 
nation of the people by crying 'Copperhead,' 
and 'disloyalty' against the Democracy, just 
as the thief attempts to escape detection by 
crying 'stop thief.' 

"Now, then, if it be true, and we dare any 
man to the test, that no man in the Democratic 
party can be found, who has ever expressed a 
desire, m any form, for a dissolution of this 
Union, and all the above named Republicans 
have expressed disloyal sentiments, is it not 
true that the Democratic party is the loyal and 
the Abolition the disloyal partyl We chal- 
lenge any man to a full scrutiny of these facts." 

THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS THE PALLA- 

DIUJI OF OUR LIBERTIES. 

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is 
the most sacred that pertains to human liber- 
ties. Sir William Blackstone hails it as 
"the glory of the British Constitution." The 
right existed in some form all through the pri- 
meval and mature existence of civilized Greece 
and Rome, and the right to be heard in self 
defense was the corner stone of the Pandects. 
When tyrants and oppressors abridged, and 
annually banished this inestimable right from 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



243 



the Peninsular, the Roman Empire faded into 
obscurity. When the Saracens were driven out 
of Gaul, the habeas corpus was snuffed out and 
the sun of liberty sat to rise no more for long 
years. The Normands under the Feudal Dy- 
nasty refused to recognise this sacred right, 
and its denial cost more than one tyrant his 
head, and convulsed Europe for ages, until the 
Anglo Saxon spirit rose in the majesty of its 
strength, and wrung from King John over six 
hundred years ago, the 3Iagna Charta o*" Brit- 
ish liberty. The people had] been seized and 
imprisoned without accusation or trial, and ri- 
sing as one man, demanded a constitutional 
pledge that their personal liberties] should be 
secured from such outrages. That trembling 
monarch at fii'st refused and scorned the pub- 
lic clamor and complaints, buowhen he saw the 
block from which his guilty and tyranical head 
was soon to roll, he yielded, and thus was 
■wrung from him the following pledge, which 
has ever been the pride, the boast and the "key 
stone-' of English liberty: 

"No freeman shall be arrested or imprison- 
ed, or dissiezed (of property), or outlawed, or 
banished, or any loays injur ed,nor will we pass 
sentence upon him, nor send ti-ial upon him, 
unless by the legal judgment of his peers, or by 
the law of the land.'''' 

"The denial of this right," says a, distin- 
guished statesman, "cost one English Monarch 
his head, another his crown, and a third his 
most valuable colonies, and to-day if Queen 
Victoria should attempt to suspend it by tele- 
graph, or by Executive order, of privy council, 
in any way, she would be a refugee in a foreign 
land in less than a fortnight." Nearly half a 
century later this inestimable right was con- 
firmed, and the people were protected by their 
sovereign immunity from arrests without trial. 
In 1626, the great law giver. Lord Coke, drew 
np the celebrated "Petition of Rights," which 
again confirmed and extended this inestimable 
right, as follows: 

"No man, of ivhat estate or condition that he 
be, shall be put out of his land or tenements, 
nor arrested nor imprisoned, nor disinherited, 
nor put to death, without being brought to an- 



swer by DUE PROCESS OF LAW.' 



And it was further provided that no "com- 
missioners" should be appointed to try any one 
"not in the army" By martial law, 

— "lest by color of them, any of his Majesty's 
subjects be destroyed or put to death, contrary 
to the laws and franchises of the land." 



Then., in 1679 came the habeas corpus, occ, 
upon which Lord C.\mpbell remarked, and we 
fear Americans must blush to own the truth of 
that proud boast, that 

— "personal liberty has been more effectually 
guarded in England than it has in any other 
country in the world." 

In 1689 came the English "Bill of Rights," 
matured and enacted by the most profound 
statesmen and pure patriots that ever breathed 
in England. These great and exalted men, 
after they had driven the tyi-anical James II. 
from the throne for his repeated violations of 
the rights of Englishmen, declared him guilty 
of subverting the laws of the Kingdom, and at- 
tempting to destroy the liberties of the people, 
and in their "true bill" of indictment they 
thus arraign the would-be tyrant before the 
British people and the world: 

"1. By assuming and exercising a power of 
dispensing with and suspending of laws and the 
execution of laws ivithout consent of a Parlia- 
ment. 

"2. By committing and prosecuting divers 
worthy prelates, for humbly petitioning to be 
excused from concurring lo the said assumed 
power. 

"By violating the freedom of election of 
members to serve in Parliament. 

"All of which," say they, "are utterly and 
directly contrary to the known laws and stat- 
utes and freedom of this realm." 

These, fellow readers, are the sacred liber- 
ties of Englishmen. Their violation has prov- 
en fatal to more than one head, garnised by 
the diadems of power, and yet from time to 
time these rights in England have been partial- 
ly secured. The great Charter of English 
freemen was outraged in various ways by the 
succeeding reigning monarchs, who sought to 
control the lives and property^ of persons as 
well as the government, nor was this great 
right completely sacred until the beginning of 
the present century. It was the partial refusal 
of this right, and sundry and divers enormities 
committed in violation of the "Great Charter'.' 
that sent the Mayflower and its refugee pil- 
grims to Plymouth Rock who brought over with 
them, sealed in their liberty-loving hearts, the 
Magna Charta of English liberty, the key stone 
of which was the habeas corpus and a proper 
trial for all nllcged offencs. Twenty years • 
after their landing, in 1641, the infant colony 
enacted in their "Body of Liberties," that 

"No man's life shall be taken away, no man's 
honor or good name shall be stained, no man's 



244 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



person shall be arrested, restrained, banished 
dismembered nor any ways punished, no man 
shall be deprived of his wife and children, no 
man's goods or estate shall be taken away from 
him, nor any way endangered under color of 
law or countenance of authority, unless it by 
virtue or equity of some express law of the 
country warranting the same, &c. 

"No man's person shall be restrained or im- 
prisoned by any authority whatsoever, before 
the law hath sentenced him thereto, if he can 
put in sufficient security, bailor mainprise," 
&c. 

Thus was sown the seeds of English liberty 
OH American soil. But for a long series of 
years prior to the declarations of Independence 
King George had been riviting the chains of 
servitude on the American colonies, who had 
home it until forbearance ceased to be a vir- 
tue, when on the 4th of July, 1776 — 135 years 
after the first declaration of American liberties 
— the American colonies by their Deputies, put 
forth tbe immortal Declaration, drawn by the 
inspired pen of Thos. Jefferson. It will be seen 
that among the many complaints, on which 
should stand or fall our claim to separation and 
freedom, the rendering the military independ- 
ent of, and superior to the civil power, the de- 
nial of the right of trial by jury, and transport- 
ing us to foreign lands to be tried for pretend- 
ed offences were not among the least. 

"He has affected to render the military in- 
dependent of, and superior to the civil power. 

"For depriving us, in many cases, of the 
benefits of trial by jury. 

"For transporting us beyond the seas to be 
tried for pretended offenses." 

Reader, have you seen nothing of late that 
Savors of outrages thus complained of in our 
Magna Charter of freedom? 

And again: in the Virginia "Bill of Rights" 
of 1776, written also by Jefferson, it is de- 
clared that — 

"All power is invested in, and consequently 
derived from the people, that magistrates are 
their trustees and servants, and at all times 
amendable to them. 

"All power of suspending laws, or the exe- 
cution of laws, by any authority, without con- 
sent of the representatives of the people, is in- 
jurious to their rights, and ought not to be ex- 
ercised. 

"iw all cases the military should be under 
strict subordination to, and governed by. the 
civil power. 

"Freedom of the press is one of the great 
bulwarks of liberty, and can never be re- 
strained, but by the despotic governments." 

And yet again: in the "Declaration of 



Rights" in Massachusetts, in 1730, it is laid 
down that — 

"No person shall be held to answer for any 
crime or oflFense, until the same is fully and 
plainly, substantially and formally described 
to him. And no person shall be arrested or im- 
prisoned, or despoiled or deprived of his pro- 
perty, immunities or privileges, put out of the 
protection of the law, or deprived of life, lib- 
erty or estate, but by the judgment of his peers 
or thelaiv of the land. 

"Every person has a right to lie secure from 
all unreasonable searches and seizures of his 
person, his house, his papers and all his posses-- 
sions. 

"The liberty of the press is essential to the 
security of freedom in a state. 

"The people have a right to keep and bear 
arms for the common defense. The military 
shall alio ays be held in exact subordination to 
the civil authority and be governed by it. 

'The people have a right in an orderly and 
peacable manner to asseaible to consult upon 
the common good. 

"The power of suspending the laws ought 
never to be exercised but by the Legislature, 
or by authority derived from it, to be exercised 
in such particular cases only as the Legisla- 
ture shall expressly provide for. 

"No person can, in any cane, be subjected to 
law martial, or to any penaltie? or pains by 
virtue of that law except those employed in the 
army or navy, and except the militia in actual 
service, but by authority of the Legislature^ 

Such, reader, were understood to be Ameri- 
con rights, in our Revolutionary period, the 
men Icved their country for the sake of the 
common blessings to flow from its just and 
wise laws, honestly administered. Such the 
liberty of the inaugurating that good system of 
fundamental law that pervades the Constitu- 
tion of the United States and every. State in 
the Union. Let us look at the "Great Char- 
ter" of the Union. Here is enough to settle 
the point without bloodshed. 

"The judicial power shall extend to all cases 
in law and equity arising under this Constitu- 
tion, the laws of the United States, and trea- 
ties made, or which shall be made, under their 
authority. 

"The trial of all crimes, except in cases of 
impeachment, shall be by jury, and such trial 
shall be held in the State where the said crimes 
shall have been committed. 

"Treason against the United States shall 
consist ONLY in levying war against them, or 
in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid 
.and comfort. No person shall be convicted of 
treason unless on the testimony of two wit- 
aesses to the same overt act, or on confession 
in open court. 

"Congress shall make no law respecting an 
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the 
free exercise thereof; or abridging the free- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



245 



dom of speech, or of the press; or the right of 
the people peacably to assemble, and to peti- 
tion the Government for a redress of grie- 
vances. 

••The right of the people to keep and bear 
arms, shall not be infringed. 

•'The right of the people to be secure in 
their persons, houses, papers and effects against 
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not 
be violated, and no warrant shall issue but up- 
on probable cause, supported by oath or affir- 
mation, and particularly describing the place 
to be searched and the persons and things to be 
seized. 

"No person shall be held to answer for a 
capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on 
a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, 
except in cases arising in the land and naval 
forces, or in the militia, when in actual ser- 
vice, in time of war and public danger; nor 
shall be deprived of life, liberty or property, 
ivithout due process of law; nor shall private 
property be taken for public use without just 
compensation. 

"In all criminal prosecutions the accused 
shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public 
trial by an impartial jury of the State and 
District wherein the crime shall have been 
committed, which District shall have been pre- 
viously ascertained by law: and to be inform- 
ed of the nature and cause of the accusation; 
to be confronted with the witnesses against 
him; to have compulsory process for obtaining 
witnesses in his favor, and to have the assist- 
ance of counsel for his defense 

"The powers not delegated to the United 
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by 
it to the States, are reserved to the States re- 
spectively, or to the people. 

"All Legislative powers herein granted, 
shall be vested in a Congress of the United 
States. 

"The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus 
shall not be suspended, unless when in case of 
rebellion or invasion the public safety re- 
quires it." 

To the last paragraph we would- devote a 
word or two. So great has been the desire to 
see the rebellion crushed, and no impediment 
put in the way of those who would honestly do 
it, that many Democrats justified the act of 
the President in suspending the writ in Mary- 
land, before that state was brought under the 
full control of the U. S. power. It was then 
an open question, whether the President or 
Congx-ess had the full or concurrent power to 
suspend this writ. Republican groat men and 
Democratic statesmen differed on the subject. 
But that matters not for our present purpose. 
All agree that our fathers, in framing the Con- 
stitution, did conceive of a possible necessity 
that might require the suspension of this ines- 
timable right, and they provided that somebody 
might use it when necessary. But the reason- 



able construction is, that no man has v ' '^ht to 
suspend that writ in districts where iao civil 
powerisloyal,andisnot impeded or menaced by 
hostile forces. All know that in a state of act- 
ual conflict, within hostile lines, the civil power 
however loyal may be its agents, is not safe to 
trust with the trial and punishment of traitors, 
who may be leagued in such vast numbers as to 
defy all civil process. Especially where the judi- 
cial agencies are justly suspected of disloyalty, 
it is proper to suspend this writ but never 
—NFVER— NEVER in a district where 
the civil power is omnipotent. Nor is 
it a safe doctrine to hold that if Congress 
has the power to suspend the writ (and that is 
now the conceded fiict), that power can be 
delegated to the President, or to any other 
branch of government agencies. For if Con- 
gress can delegate power in this instance, it 
may in all, and it may invest the President 
with every other power it pleases — the ma- 
king of laws, treaties, trial of impeachments, 
&c. In fact, Congress may declare the Presi- 
den supreme law giver and dictator. This 
proposition is too absurd to require argument 
to enforce it, and yet, it is precisely what Con- 
gress has attempted, in delegating a portion of 
its power to the President. Suppose that any 
man in either of the loyal states should be ar- 
rested on suspicion of being disloyal to the 
Government. Does any one believe it would 
be unsafe to trust any judge in his county, or 
his state, even, to hear and determine the char- 
ges, and that if he was really proven guilty, 
does any man believe any judge in his state 
would connive at his release? Such an idea 
would be monstrous to entertain. There is no 
excuse then, in the loyal states for suspending 
this writ. Not a man in the loyal North, (save 
a host of leading Republicans) has raised his 
voice against the Government, and all, save 
those disuniomsts, would fight, if necessary, to 
defend it. 

All, then, haveone common interest in see- 
ing the laws and all legal orders obeyed. But 
under the late order, the best man, the purest 
patriot we have in any state may be "suspect- 
ed" by some personal enemy, and by false ac- 
cusations arrested for "disloyal practices," 
and bundled off to a foi-eign bastile, without 
ever being informed what he was arrested for. 
We have hundreds of such cases to fill up the 

black list of tyranny and personal revenge 

'Tis but a few days since we heard of General 



246 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



Prince, of the army, wlio was liberated froju 
Fort Lafayette, and for the first time acquaint- 
ed with the charge against him, which was for 
stealing horses he was taking over the line, 
when he pulled out a "'pass" for the identical 
liorses, which he had in his pocket at the time, 
and which he could have shown ai the time, if 
permitted to know the charges against him, 
showing that the horses were his own. Thus, 
with the evidence of his innocence in his pock- 
et from a high commanding officer, he was ar- 
rested without charges, and locked in loath- 
some dungeons for months, as a test of the ty- 
rant's power. Reader, your turn may come 
next. As you sit reading this, some secret 
personal enemy may be plotting your arrest, 
and you may be sent to some foreign Bastile, 
and there waste away in duress, without ever 
knowing the charges against you. 

Is this the "freedom" our early fathers pro- 
claimed, in 1641, on the historical Rock of 
Plymouth, and for which they risked their 
lives, their fortunes, and their most sacred 
honors, during the fearful period that ushered 
in the freest of the free among the families of 
nations? Is this the kind of "freedom" we 
liave heard so much about for the last twenty- 
five years, sung in the school room, chanted 
in the cloister, doled from the press, preached 
from the pulpit, and thundered from the Abo- 
lition Vaticans? Is this the "freedom" we are 
now fighting for] Let us see if we find any 
warrant for such belief in our own Magna 
Charta, the Constitution, which is but a reflex 
of all preceaing state constitutions on tkis 
"free" continent, whose tap root reaches down 
through a long line of freedom's consanguinity, 
the Great Charter wrung from King John, 
by a crude, though outraged people. Here are 
a few gems from our Bill of Rights — from Ar- 
ticle I: 

"All persons are born equully free and in- 
dependent, and have certain inaliable rights; 
among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness." 

"Every person may freely speak, write and 
publish his sentiments on all subjects, being 
responsible for the abuse of that right, and no 
laws shall be passed to restrain or abridge the 
liberty of speech or the press." 

"The right of the people to assemble to con- 
sult for the common good, and to petition the 
Government or any IJepartment thereof, shall 
never he abridged.''^ 

"The right of trial by jury shall remain in- 
violate.''^ 

"No person shall be held to answer for a 



criminal offense unless upon the presentment 
or indictment of a Grand Jury, except incases 
of impeachment, or in cases cognizable by Jus- 
tices of the Peace, or arisinging nt the Army 
or Navy or in the Militia, when in actual ser- 
vice in time of war or public danger." 

"The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus 
shall not be suspended, unless when in cases 
of rebellion or invasion the public safety may 
require it." 

Now, no one will pretend the loyal North is 
"invaded," or that we have a "rebellion" 
within our borders and yet the writ of habeas 
corpus is suspended. 

"Treason against the state shall consist owZy 
in levying war against the same, or in adhering 
to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort." 

We deny that there is a man in the loyal 
states, known to any person, who comes under 
this definition of treason. 

"The military shall be in strict subordina- 
tion to the civil power." 

Now, who has a ri^ht to disobey these fun- 
damental commands? Are our liberties safe 
when our inalienable rights are set aside? 
Who can contemplate the parallel history of 
Jacobinism and red Republicanism in France, 
without a shudder. The Peninsular wars and 
the French Revolution all furnish us material 
for the most serious alarm. Read the 10th and 
14th chapter of Allison's History of Europe, 
and read the "Law of Suspected persons." 
Here is an extract that now suits our "com- 
missioner" trial system to a T. [See Allison^s 
History of Europe, vol. I. p. 219. 

"Thenceforward, the committee of public 
safety at Paris exercised, without opposition, 
all the powers of government; it named and 
dismissed the Generals, the judges and the 
juries; appointed the intendants of the provin- 
ces; brought forward all public measures in 
the convention [like our abolitionists] and 
launched its thunder against every opposite 
faction. By means of its commissioners [like 
our commissioners to try for alleged offences] 
it ruled the Provinces Generals and armies 
[see our own condition] with absolute sway; 
and soon after, the Law of Suspected Persons 
[the same as here] placed the personal free- 
dom of every subject at its disposal [the same 
here.] The revolutionary tribunal rendered it 
the master of every life, the requisition and 
the maximum of every fortune; the accusations 
in the conventions of every member of the Leg- 
islature. 

"The Law of Suspected Persons [sec Fort 
Lafayette, &c.] which gave this tremendous 
power to the Decemvirs, passed on the 17th of 
Sept. [the anniversary of which the Republi- 
cans of the Wisconsin Legislature celebrated 
by their action on the infamous army voting 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



247 



scheme.] It declared all persons liable to ar- 
rest who, either by their conduct, their rela- 
tions, their conTcrsations, or their writings [or 
'any disloyal practices,' eh?] have shown them- 
selves pardzans of tyranny, [yes, even French 
Red Republicans denounced tyranny while 
they waded knee deep in human gore!] or of fed- 
eration, with the enemies of freedom [the same 
kind of 'freedom' we are threatened with, per- 
haps,] all persons who have not discharged 
their debts to the country, all nobles, the hus- 
bands, wives, parents, children mothers, sis- 
ters or agents of emigrants, [those who fled 
from the reign of terror] who have not inces- 
santly manifested their devotion to the Revolu- 
tion. Under this law no person had any chance 
of safety but in going the utmost length of 
Revolutionary fury." 

We learn from this history that all France 
was divided into 12 classes, as follows: 

1. '-All those who in the assemblies of the 
people discouraged their enthusiasm by cries, 
menaces or crafty discourses. 2. All those 
who most prudently speak only of the misfor- 
tunes of the Republic, and are always ready to 
spread bad news with an aflFected air of sorrow 
3. All those who have changed their conduct 
and language according to the course of events, 
who were mute on the crimes of the Royalists, 
[This is equivalent to Mr. Lincoln's crime of 
"saying nothing,] and loudly exclaim against 
the slight faults of the Republicans. 10. Those 
who speak with centempt of the constituted 
authorities the ensigns of law, the popular so- 
cieties, or the deienders of liberty, &c., &c." 

Are we to be cursed by such a reign of ter- 
ror that swept away five millions ef the French 
people, and by such brutal contentions as run 
riot between the bloodthirsty Jacobins and the 
agrarian Girondists? Are our tribunals tore- 
lapse into French Decemvirates, as described 
by Thiers, the French historian, who says: 

"The Tribunal, once the protectors of life 
and property, have become the organs of 
butchery, where robbery and murder have 
usurped the names of confiscation and punish- 
ment f 

And during all this bloody period, both the 
Jacobins and Girondins claimed to be acting 
in behalf of "Freedom" and "Liberty!" 
Reader, see you not a parallel in the looming 
shadow before you? God forbid that truth, in 
this land, should compel us to exclaim with the 
heroic Danton, when thrown into a French 
bastile, for predicting the ruin and desolation 
that speedily followed: 

"At last," said he "I perceive, that in Rev- 
olutions, the supreme power finally rests with 
the mo3t abandoned!" 

Who thai reads the gorey pages of French 
history, during the reign of terror, that swept 



away the last vestige of GauUic liberty, can 
repress a shudder, lest in the mazes of our 
Revolution, we may drift into the abyss of 
contending factions, and be overtaken by the 
cruelty of a St. Just, the fanaticism of a Cou- 
thon, or the crafty tyranny of a Robespierre. 
History is our monitor. The tortuous pathway 
of nations is strewn with the bleaching bones 
of ambitious pretenders, and national epitaphs 
are graven on every mile stone: — "Enslaved 
in the name of Liberty! — slain in the name of 
humanity!" 

The people of France yielded inch by inch 
and suffered their liberties to be invaded, and 
their rights, one by one, to be swallowed up, 
in the din of the demagogue's cry of "Liber- 
ty," until the Jacobin and Girondin Clubs, 
the Committee of Public Safety, rioting under 
the "Law of Suspected Persons," destroyed 
every vestige of their power, and they were 
forced to bear the expense of their own execu- 
tion! May our Nation's Capitol never become 
a Conciegerrie. 

We are for suppressing this rebellion the 
"shortest way under the constitution." We 
desire to see the strong arm of power out- 
stretched to crush out treason wherever it ex- 
ists, but we do not want to see the charter of 
our liberties destroyed. Violence should not 
be used except where violence is arrayed 
against the Government. If our citizens may 
under any pretext, except in actual rebellion 
here at home, be arrested, on the ipse dixit of 
any political pretender, and transported to 
other states, without knowing what charges 
have been preferred against them, we have no 
security. Even the Jacobins who persecuted 
the Girondins may in turn become the perse- 
cuted, and thus the lex talionis become the 
watchword for a new French reign of terror. 
We should profit by the warnings of history. 
The fate of nations that live only in bloody 
history, should teach us that human rights 
cannot long be trampled on with impunity. 
Cato demanded of his son the suicide's weapon 
rather than live under the tyranny of the in 
vading Ceesar. May we pray that no necessity 
shall ever arise where the suicide Cato shall 
become the homicide Brutus. God protect the 
right and save the liberties of the people from 
anarchy and despotism. 

BLACKSTCiNE ON KNGLISJ HABEAS COKPUS 

A certain lawyer once quoted Blackstone to 



248 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



a Justice, wLohad decided a point against him, 
not, as he said, to change the mind of the 
Justice, but to show the Court what an old fool 
Sir Wm. Blackstone was. According to our 
state Constitutions, in order to the preserva- 
tion of our liberties, frequent recourse must 
be had to fundamental principles, and as Sir 
■WiLLiASi Blackstone is considered pretty 
good authority, we wish to quote from him, I, 
135: 

"By 16 Car. I, c. 10, if any person be re- 
strained of his liberty by order or decree of 
any illegal court, or by command of the King^s 
Majesty in person^ or by warrant of the Coun- 
cil'Board, or of any of the Privy Council, he 
shall, etc., have a writ of habeas corpus to bring 
his body before the Court of King's bench, or 
Common pleas, who shall determine whether 
the cause of his commitment be just," &c. 

"Of great importance to the public is the 
preservation of this personal liberty; for if 
once it were left in the poiver of any, THE 
HIGHEST MAGISTRATE, to imprison arbi- 
trarili/ whomever he or his ojHcers thought pro- 
rer THERE WOULD SOON BE AN END 
Of'aLL OTHER RIGHTS AND IMMUNI- 
TIES. Some have thought that unjust attacks 
even upon life or property at the arbitrary will 
of the magistrates are less dangerous to the 
Commonwealth than such as are made upon 
the personal liberty of the subject. To be- 
reave a man of life, or by violence to confiscate 
his estate, without accusation or trial, would 
be so gross and notorious an act of despotism 
as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny 
throughout the whole kingdom. And yet some- 
times when the state is in real danger even 
this may be a necessary measure. But the 
happiness of our Constitution is that it is not 
left to the Executive poK-er to determine when 
the danger of the state is so great as to render 
this measure expedient; for it is the Parlia- 
ment or Legislative power, that, whenever it 
sees proper, can authorize the crown, by sus- 
pending the habeas corpus act for a short and 
limited time, to imprison suspected persons, 
without giving any reason for so doing" 

And, further to enlighten the Court upon 
the subject of sending men from Iowa to Fort 
La Fayette or any other Bastile, 1200 miles 
from their residence, we quote from the same 
author, same vol. p. 137: 

"And by the habeas corpus act, (the second 
Magna Charta and stable bulwarks of our lib- 
erties,) it is enacted that no subject of this 
realm who is an inhabitant of England, Wixles, 
or Berwick, shall be sent prisoner into Scot- 
land, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, or other 
places beyond the seas; but that all such im- 
prisonments shall be illegal, that the person 
who shall dare to commit another, contrary to 
this law, shall be disabled from hearing any of- 
fice, shall incur the penalty ot praemunire and 
Ibe incapable of receiving the King^s pardon,a.nd 



the party suffering shall also have his private 
action against the person committing, and all 
his aiders, advisers, and abettors; and shall 
recover treble costs; besides his damages which 
no jury shall assess at less than £500." 

These rights were declared in 1688 to be 
"the birth right of every Englishman;" and 
are they not ours by inheritance? 

Now look at the Constitution of the United 
States. Sec. 8 of Art. 1. declares affirmatively 
the powers of Congress; Sec. 9 defines their 
powers negatively. If the President can arbi- 
trarily suspend the writ of habeas corpus upon 
the authrity of section 9, equally can he exer- 
cise any other of the powers of Congress. 
Section 10 negatively defines the powers of 
states. Notice here the connection: 1st What 
Congress shall have power to do; 2d What 
Congress shall not have authority to do; and 
.3d What the States shall not have the right to 
do, under the Constitution. No other inter- 
pretation is plausible. 

The Ordinance of 1787 expressly guarantees 
certain privileges to the inhabitants of the ter- 
ritory embraced, being expressly stated to be 

"Articles of compact between the original 
states in the said territory, and shall forever 
remain unalterable, unless by common con- 
sent," to-wit: — "The inhabitants of the said 
territory shall always be entitled to the bene- 
fits of the writ of habeas corpus, and of the 
trial byjury .'^ 

WHAT OUR FATHERS THOUGHT OF IT. 

In the Constitutional Convention of 1787, 
[Elliott's Debates, vol. 5, p. 484,] we find the 
following sentiments advanced in reference to 
the sacredness of the writ of habeas corpus: 

"Mr. Pinckney, urging the propriety of se- 
curing the writ of habeas corpus in the most 
ample manner, moved that it should not be 
suspended but on the most urgent occasions, 
and then only for a limited time, not exceed- 
ing twelve months. 

"Mr. Rutledge was for declaring the habeas 
corpus inviolate. He did not conceive that a 
suspension could ever be necessary at the same 
time THROUGH all the states. 

"Mr. Gouveneur Morris moved that "the 
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not 
be suspended, unless when, in case of rebel- 
lion or invasion, the public safety may require 
it." 

"[This was the clause finally adopted.] 

"Mr. Millson doubted, whether in any ease 
a suspension could be necessary, as the discre- 
tion now exists with judges, in most important 
cases, to keep in goal or admit to bail." 

The above shows how jealous our fathers 
were of their rights, and how they feared to 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



249 



risk the suspension of the sacred writ of ha- 
beas corpus under any circumstances. The 
record shows that even seven states, New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Penn- 
sylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, 
voted for the clause as adopted, while three 
states, North Carolina, South Carolina and 
Georgia, voted against the last clause — they 
being opposed to any suspension of the writ, 
under any circumstances. Three states were 
absent. 

JUD(iE CUHTIS ON LOYALTY AND HABEAS 
CORPUS. 

The Hon. George Tickner Curtis, form- 
erly of Bosion, now of New York, and one of 
the soundest jurists in the land, addressed the 
Democratic Union Association of New York 
city on the 2Sth of March, 1S63. We are al- 
most tempted to give his remarks entire, 
lengthy as they were, but our space allotted 
will not permit us. The following should be 
read by everybody. 

•'No man, who does not join in a wild, un- 
discriminating support of the measures and 
dogmas of a dominant party, can hope to es- 
cape detraction and obloquy. The utmost ex- 
ertions are made to suppress ordinary freedom 
of speech; every device is employed to misrep- 
resent, and every eflFort is made to misunder- 
stand the purposes of those who are not in po- 
litical power. The vocabulary of political 
slang is exhausted to find termg of reproach 
and infamy with which to stigmatize men whose 
motives have in their favor all the ordinary 
presumptions of purity, and whose arguments 
and opinions are at least entitled to a respect- 
ful hearing. This process, which has been go- 
ing on for many months with violence unex- 
ampled, even among a people whose political 
discourses are never marked by too much tem- 
perance, has culminated from time to time in 
outrages upon the rights of persons and prop- 
erty, and may do so again. It is no time when 
one would choose to utter opinions without be- 
ing impelled by a strong sense of duty. 

"But, if we are not prepared to suffer for 
our convictions, they must be very humble 
convictions. If we do not love our country 
and its institutions well enough to encounter 
all the hazards that may attend an honest effort 
to save them, our love must be cold, indeed. 
Such I am sure is not your case or mine. (Ap- 
plause.) Meaning to utter here nothing but 
words of truth and soberness — the truth as I 
hold it, in the soberness that becomes me to ac- 
cept all the responsibility to public opinion 
which may justly fall thereon. 

''I propose to speak to you to-night upon a 
subject which seems to me to be strangely mis- 
apprehend by many good men, and strangely 
17 



perverted by many who are not good. I mean 
the subject of 'loyalty' The word itself, at 
least in the sense in which it is used in those 
countries from' which we have borrowed it, can 
scarcely be s^id to have an appropriate politi- 
cal and social system. But it is a word at pres- 
ent in great use among us; and we must take 
it as we find it, and are bound to enquire what 
are the moral duties which its just and true 
signification embraces. The injury and the 
certain consequences of accepting and follow- 
ing out the doctrines which are now forced up- 
on us will form the topics of my discourse to- 
night. 

"The true conditions of American loyalty 
are not to be found in the passionate exactions 
of partizan leaders, or in the frantic declama- 
tions of the pulpit, the rostrum or the press. 
(Cheers.) People who do not like my politi- 
cal opinions may howl at me the epithet dis- 
loyal, but when they have thrown this missile 
they have not taken a step towards defining to 
me and to others, what the true conditions of 
loyalty are. It is important that this step 
should betaken; for, whether we are to go on 
or to cease, in this course of idle and un- 
meaning abuse, it concerns us all to know what 
measure of public duty may rightfully be ex- 
acted of us. To know theilength and depth of 
of those great virtues which are comprehended 
in the term 'patriotism' — to feel at once that 
they are seated in our affections, and enthroned 
in our reason— is, to 'get wisdom and under- 
standing,' in thelargest of earthly po-ssessicns. 
(Great applause.) The true conditions of 
Anierican loyalty are to be found in the insti- 
tutions under which we live; in the duties 
flowing from the Constitution of our country; 
(applause) in the political system which we 
have inherited from our fathers, with all its 
manifold relations, through which we may 
trace the clear dividing line that separates 
perfect irom imperfect obligations. (Cheers.) 

''The text of- our fundamental law is the 
guide, and the sole guide, in all ethical inqui- 
ries into the duties of the citizen. To that 
source all must come, rulers and people alike; 
to that fountain all must resort. The vague 
and shifting standards that are drawn from 
supiposed dangers to what is called the 'nation- 
al life,' or which spring from the conflicting 
judgments of man respecting public necessi- 
ties, can determine nothing. Those things can 
furnish no rule. We must have a rule., for 
loyalty is a moral duty; and it must, therefore, 
be capable of definition. A people whose 'nation- 
al life' exists only by virtue of a written necessi- 
ty, can find no rule of loyalty in any of the 
necessities that lie out of, or beyond the writ- 
ten necessity, can find no rule of loyalty in 
any of the necessities which their constitution, 
of Government does not cover. They may find 
grounds of expediency in one or other supposed 
necessity for destroying their constitution: but, 
it would be extremely absurd to say that this 
expediency could be made the object of their 
'loyalty.' Let us go, then, to the fountain 
head — the source of all national obligations. 

"The Constitution of the United States itself 



-250 



flVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



prescribes the full msiisure of our loyalty, in 
these •words: 

" This O'jnstitution, and the laws ..f the- United States 
which shall he made, in pursuance thereof, and all treatieis 
made, or wbich shall be made, under the authority of the 
United States, shall be t/it supreme law of the land." 

''Observe how precise as well as comprehen- 
sive this great rule of our duty is. It express- 
es without ambiguity the whole of our obliga- 
tion toward the Federal Government. It 
makes a supreme law — a law paramount to all 
other human laws — an obligation paramount to 
all other human obligations. It leaves no room 
■whatever for the intrusion of another, or a ri- 
>fal claimant to our civil obedience. That 
claimant can neither be a person invested, or 
uninvested with office, nor an idea of, public 
necessity, nor an imaginary 'national life' be- 
yond, or apart from the life created under the 
constitution. The only possible claimant of 
our obedience is the laic; for, as that law is 
made supreme, all other demands or demand- 
ants upon our submission are of necessity ex- 
cluded. (Loud cheers.) 

"What, then, does this supreme law em- 
brace? The test on which I am commenting 
itself furnishes the answer, 'This Constitu- 
tion,' it says — what this constitution contains, 
and the laivs that shall be inade 2w conformity 
with it — these shall be the supreme law, rising 
in authority above all other laws. No public 
necessities, save as they are embodied in the 
Constitution — no 'national life,' save as it ex- 
ists under the Constitution — no legislation that 
is not in accordance with the Constitution — is 
the supreme law: but what the Constitution 
ordains or authorizes, tliat is the public neces- 
sity— ?7<a< is the national life, because it is the 
supreme civil obligation. (Applause.) 

■'Such is the fundamental character of our 
political system, and so perfect is it in its con- 
sistency with itself, and with the rights of all 
who are subject to it, that it contains a machi- 
nery by which the conformity of all acts of the 
Government with the principles of the Consti- 
tution may be peacefully tested, without forci- 
ble resistance. If the acts of the Government 
are complained of as unconstitutional, they 
may be brought to a judicial test, or the peo- 
ple may themselves pass upon them at the bal- 
lot box through the instrumentality of frequent 
elections. (Applause.) 

"Now, when we look into the Constitution of 
our country, to discover the full scope of the 
obligations which are embraced in the supreme 
law of the land, we find that it grants certain 
political powers and rights to the contral or 
national government, and reserves all other po- 
litical powers and rights to the states or the 
people. Hence, it is plain that the reserved 
rights of the people are just as much compre- 
hended within the duty of our allegiance — ^just 
as much for the rightful objects of our 'loyal- 
ty' as the powers and rights presented in the 
national government. If the political existence 
created by the Constitution is the 'national 
life,' called into being by the supreme law of 
the land — and he would be a bold and reckless 
sophist who should undertake to find that na- 



tional life anywhere else — then, the rights 
which the Constitution reserves to the states or 
the people are equally comprehended it that 
life, for they are equally declared to be parts 
of the supreme law of the land. For this 
reason, all idea of a supremacy of the nation- 
al rights, or powers or interests, when found- 
ed on something not embraced in the Constitu- 
tion, is purely visionary. No duty of 'loyalty' 
can possibly be predicated on any claim that is 
not founded in the supreme law, and our 'loy- 
alty' is not due to them. When we know what 
are the rights and powers reserved to the states 
or the people — and we know they are the whole 
residue of all possible political rights and 
powers — they are equally the objects of our 
'loyalty' for the self same reason, namely — 
they are parts of the supreme law of the land. 
(Loud applause.) j.i 

'•Again, the Constitution not only contain^ 
some political powers and rights granted to the 
Federal Government, and a reservation of all 
other political powers and rights to the states 
or the people, but it also embraces rights of 
person and property, guaranteed to every citi- 
zen in his individual capacity: and these are 
equally made, not by implication, but express- 
ly, parts of the same law of the land, and arc 
therefore equally the objects of our 'loyalty.' 
All pretense, therefore, of any paramount au- 
thority in the Central Government to override 
these personal rights of the citizen, or to claim 
our 'loyalty' in disregard of these co-ordinate 
parts of the supreme law, is a perversion of the 
very idea of American loyalty. (Cheers) As 
well might the citizen claim, because the Con- 
stitution has made his personal rights part of 
the supreme law, that therefore, the loyalty of 
his neighbor is due to him alone, as the Gov- 
ernment can claim that loyalty, is due solely, 
or chiefly, or principally, or ultimately, to 
the functions it is appointed to perform. — 
The rights of the Government, the rights of 
the states, and the rights of individuals, all 
and equall3', are comprehended in the supreme 
law of the land, and our loyalty is due to that 
law — to the whole and to every part of it — and 
public officers are in the same sense, and for 
the same reason, bound to obey every 'jot and 
tittle of it.' (Great applause.) 

"These provisions are very plain and famil- 
iar; too familiar, perhaps you will say, to re- 
quire to be stated. The extravagant language 
and ideas that are current in the mouths of 
even sensible people, on this subject of loyal- 
ty, would have exceeded all capacity of belief, 
in any other period than this. If one were to 
undertake to reduce their language and their 
ideas to something like a definite, moral propo- 
sition, it would be found that the doctrine is 
something like this: — In a time of war, when 
there are great public dangers, the rights of 
States and of individuals, must give way, and 
if those who administer the government are 
satisfied that the public necessity requires 
them to use powers that transcend the limits 
of the constitution,he who does not acquiesce in 
their judgment, or who questions their authori- 
ty, to do particular acts, is a "disloyal" citi- 



SCRAPS FROiM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



251 



zen. (Laughter.) This statement of the doc- 
trine is the best I know how to make, for I 
know not how else to interpret or to apply the 
denunciations which we find in the proceedings 
of public meetings, in the columns of party 
newspapers, and in the common speech and 
action of very many persons. I need only 
point to the utter prohibition that is attempted 
to be placed on all discussion of any plan for 
bringing this dreadful war to a close, except 
by the particular method of fighting; or to the 
manner in which the terms 'traitor' and 'seces- 
sionist' are hurled at all who question the au- 
thority and lawfulness of the methods pursued 
by the government in the prosecution of the 
war. For myself, 1 do not profess to have, as 
yet a definite idea concerning several of the 
modes in which a peace might be sought. But 
I '-now not what right I have, legally, or mor- 
ally, to say that my neighbor shall not discuss 
such a question, or shall not act upon it at the 
polls, or shall be denounced as 'disloyal' be- 
cause his opinions on the subject dili'er from 
mine. It is to me very plain that this whole 
effort of a dominant party to control opinion 
by such means, can, under such institutions as 
ours, lead to but one of two results — the es- 
tablishment of a despotism of a very bad kind, 
or the overthrow of the power of those whore- 
sort to such methods. Either the institutions 
of the country will perish, or the party which 
undertakes to repress all freedom of discussion 
will perish. (Cheers.) I hope we shall make 
up our minds to destroy the party and save the 
institutions. (Great applause. 'We will do 
it.'} But of this hereafter. 

"Let me return to this new doctrine of 'loy- 
alty,' which rci|uires us to acquiesce in silence 
in the judgment of public servants, as to what 
the public necessities require, even to the ex- 
tent of overlooking great infractions of the 
Constitution. This doctrine entirely ignores 
the purpose for which the Constitution imposed 
certain stringent limitations on the powers of 
the National Government. In order to explain 
this, it will be necessary to descend from gen- 
eral reasoning to particular illustrations. 

'•The Constitut'On, after enforcing certain 
defined political powers upon the Federal Gov- 
ernment, declares that all other political pow- 
ers are reserved to the States or the people. — 
And it further secures to every citizen inalien- 
able rights of person, forever, beyond all pos- 
sible control of the Government. Now, does 
any one suppose that this was done without a 
purpose? Does any one believe that it was 
done for what is vulgarly called buncombe'? 
Do you believe that it was done with mental 
reservation of the doctrine of 'public necessity' 
standing behind the Constitution, and rer.dy 
to strike it down from its supreme control over 
us and our affairs? Let me suggest to you, my 
fellow citizens, that you cannot study the Con- 
stitution, and the purposes of the great gene- 
ration who made it, without seeing that the 
very object of all this careful provision for 
rights that were placed beyond the reach of 
the Central Government, was to exclude for- 
ever this doctrine of 'public necessity' as a 



measure of the powers that were conferred 
upon that Government. (Cheers.) I use this 
language deliberately. I affirm that when the 
Constitution repeated the words of Magna 
Charta, not as a statute, but as a fixed provis- 
ion of the fundamental law, and declared that 
'no person shall bedeprived of life, liberty, or 
property, without due process of law,' it meant 
to make a rule for all times and all circum- 
stances — shutting the door forever against any 
supposed 'public necessity,' for violating the 
citizen's rights.* In like manner, I affirm that 
theConstitution reserved to the states or tlie peo- 
ple all political power not granted to the Fed- 
eral Government, it meant to preclude every 
ground of 'necessity' for the assumption by 
that Government of the powers thus withheld. 
(Applause.) 

"In fact, the idea of a written constitution— 
a fixed and supreme law— is utterly irreconcil- 
able with the theory that the administrators of 
such a government can resort to their own 
Judgment of 'public necessity,' and act contrary 
to that supreme law. and that good citizenship 
requires the people to acquiesce in that judg- 
ment. They who set up such a claim for our 
rulers, claim for them an entirely irresponsible 
power. We are required, for example, to be- 
lieve that what are called 'arbitrary arrests,' 
are 'necessary,' but no one explains to us the 
grounds of that 'necessity.' No account is 
rendered. We are to assu?ne the existence of 
causes of justification, but no one tells us v.'hat 
these causes are. They may remain forever 
locked in the bosomes of those who do the acts 
of which we complain. Why should American 
citizens, filling high places of public trust, act 
upon such a princii^Ie as this? Can anything 
be more degrading— more injurious to the pub- 
lic conscience of a people than to form a habit 
of implicit belief in the existence of necessi- 
ties which nobody explains, and of which no- 
body is required to give an account? You may 
hear a hundred men in a day, speaking of 
some particular case of this kind, profess its 
neeessitij, and not one man in the whole bund- 
s' It is in my opinion a moDstroiis fUIacy to suppose that 
the Implied authority for suspeutliug the writ of habeas 
corpus warrants indefinitely the arrest and detention of 
citizens, without judicial process. This implied authority 
was g-iven in the original constitution, but after the adopt- 
ion of that instrument, the people came forward and an- 
nexed to it the prohibition of Magna C7ifirta,maliiugthat 
provision a part of the supieme law. The two clai!ses of 
the constitution must therefore be so construed andappUed 
as not to render nugatory the one last adopted, and so as 
to give effect to its strongest declarations. These clauses 
can be reconciled only by such a course of legislation and 
executive action as will preserve the operation of both. 
If, under peculiar circumstances of imminent danger, the 
actu.ll seizures made without judicial process, the prison- 
er should be immediately charged with an offense by war- 
rant, and then a suspension of the writ of habeas corpus 
m;iy intervene to prevent his discharge from the imprison- 
ment, for causes which would operate to discharge him, if 
the wi it was not suspended. This is the only course of 
legislation, in my opinion, that can be consistent with all 
the provisions of the constitution. I do not see how it is 
possible to contend that a continual imprisonment, found- 
ed on mere executive seizure can be authorized by talking 
away the writ of habeas corpus. If Magna Charta had 
not been interposed, there might have been some ground 
for this pretension, for then there would have been no ne- 
cessity for process at any time. 



252 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



red can tell you what the necessity was ! 
(Laughter and applause.) 

''My friends, these false theories of 'loyalty' 
— for false I must deem them — are infusing in- 
to our national character afatal poison. They 
are leading those who cherish ihem to impute 
factious and interested motives to all pure and 
manly efforts in defense of the principles of 
civil lib- rty. They who indulge in this dan- 
gerous work — of deriding the defenders of 
constitutional rights, can have but a very inad- 
equate conception of the convulsions that must 
precede the final loss of these rights. They 
take but a very superficial view of the depth of 
those feelings which lead men in all free coun- 
tries to resist evei-y form of mere arbitrary 
power. They make no account of the princi- 
ples implanted in our breasts, and cherished 
into dictates of nature by generations of train- 
ing in the practice of liberty. These princi- 
ples on which depend the primary ofiice of an 
opposition in a free government, and by means 
of which all constitutional rulers are restrain- 
ed from abuses of power. Impatient of those 
restraints, such persons rush to methods which 
cannot be employed without undermining the 
foundations of liberty. And. for a supposed 
themporary advantage, barter _ away the 
strength and the supports that sustain the vigor 
of the body politic. This has been in all ages 
the downward course of nations, who have 
substituted for free institutions and systems of 
fundamental law, a blind and unquestioning 
faith in 'public necessities,' and havethen 
welcomed some despotic power. Thus did the 
Roman Empire succeed the Republic, and thus 
we may be preparing ourselves for a like des- 
tiny. Let us be warned in time. 

"I have endeavored to state with due precis- 
ion and fairness one very important part of the 
conditions of a true loyalty, but I should leave 
this subject in an imperfect state, if I omitted, 
on the other hand, to give equal prominence to 
certain principles of our political system which 
limit the mode in which states and individuals 
are to exercise their constitution.al rights of 
opposition to the measures of the Federal gov- 
ernment. I have briefly adverted to this al- 
ready, but a more extended statement of the 
principle is necessary. 

"I will assume then, that a measure, having 
all the forms of law, is believed upon good 
grounds, to be a violation of the constitutional 
rights of States and individuals. What is the 
rule of action under such circumstances? 
There is no difiBculty whatever, in finding the 
answer. [The Republican leaders would say 
'revolutionize the government.'] By the es- 
tablishment of a judicial system within the 
Federal constitution, having ultimate cogniz- 
ance of all cases arising under that constitu- 
tion, one mode is provided by which both states 
and individuals can ascertain whether their re- 
served rights are invaded by the Federal au- 
thorities. [Now, mark the difference between 
Democrats and Republicans as to the 'mode 
and measure of redress.'] This remedy is at 
all times open, and there is no valid reason 
•why a state should forcibly assert its constitu- 



tional rights any more than that an individual 
should do the same thing. "While a state re- 
mains a member of the iJnion, it is bound to 
vindicate its constitutional rights and powers 
in that mode which is consistent with the pre- 
servation of that Union, and it can at any time 
under any supposed violation of its rights, or 
the rights of its people, make a case for judi- 
cial determination, Forcible resistance [such 
as Wisconsin and Massachusetts were guilty of] 
is open revolution, and nothing but an intoler- 
able oppression, cutting off all judicial reme- 
dy, can make a revolution a necessity and a 
duty. (Applause.) 

"Again, there is another equally good rea- 
son which shows that no popular tumults, and 
no forcible resistance are either legally or mor- 
ally justifiable while the ballot box remains 
untouched. If the people of all the states had 
reason to believe that measures of the Federal 
Government are subversive of the Constitution, 
it is their right to correct the evil by change of 
their rulers. (Cheers.) In cases of supposed 
extensive violation of the Constitution, to 
which the attention of the whole country is 
called, the remedy of elections is ordinarily to 
reverse, and is in our system held to reverse 
erroneous constructions of that instrument, as 
well as errors of policy. The popular tribunal 
may not be quite so precise in its action as the 
judicial, but there can be no mistaking the 
judgment of the people when it is pronounced 
upon an issue clearly made, with an Adminis- 
tration which is charged with infringing the 
Constitution. (Crept applause.) 

"These principles, no one I presume, will be 
inclined to dispute, but there is thrust in to in- 
tercept their application to the present crisis 
in our aft'airs, a doctrine which I for one, dis- 
tinctly repudiate. That doctrine is in sub- 
stance, that all questioning of the measures of 
the Administration should be postponed while 
we are in a civil war — that there should be but 
one party, and that all should rally, to an 'un- 
conditional support' of the constitutional au- 
thorities. This dogma needs examination. 
If by an 'unconditional support' of the consti- 
tuted authorities it is intended to claim that we 
must all recognize the fact that we are engaged 
in a civil war, and that we must conduct it 
while it lasts through those authorities, and 
must hold no irregular intercourse with the 
public enemy, I readily accede to the proposi- 
tion; but, if it is meant that we are not to 
question the methods which the Administration 
pursues in the prosecution of the war — thatwe 
have no rightful control over their 7neasurcs — 
or that we are to refrain from demanding a 
change in their policy, I reject the doctrine 
without the slightest hesitation." 

s.p. chase's opinion of "loy.\lty." 
Mr. Ch.vse. the present Secretary of the 
Treasury, on the 26th of August, 1857, in a 
speech i nOhio thus gave his idea of rights 
which the Government could not invade: 

"We have the right to have our state laws 



SCRAPS FEO.M IIY SCRAP-BOOK 



253 



obeyed. We don't mean to resist Federal au- 
thority. Just or unjust laws, properly admin- 
istered, will be respected. If dissatisfied, we 
will go to the ballot box and redress our wrongs. 
But we have rights which the Federal Govern- 
ment 7)iust not mvadc — right, superior to its 
power, on which our sovereignty depends, and 
we do mean to assert these rights against all 
tyrauical assumptions of authority." 

THE BOM.iN LAW AND PERSONAL LIBERTY. 

The Romans had a keen and just appreci- 
ation of the liberty of their citizens — in war 
and in peace, the liberty of the Roman citizen 
was held sacred, and it would seem that our 
"rulers" in the latter part of the 19th century 
have gone back of the age of Roman liberality. 
By the Roman law no man could be condemned 
unheard, or thrust into prison without a trial, 
and an opportunity to meet his accusers "face 
to face." There were cases when the bigoted 
Romans, in persecuting the Christians, violated 
their laws in reference to this subject. The 
Christians of that day, like the Democrats of 
this era, were persecuted for opinion's sake. 
They took Paul and Silas, on one occasion, 
without process of law, and arbitrarily thrust 
them into prison. But God's power came to 
the aid of the Roman law — the j ail trembled and 
was fearfully shaken — the doors were opened, 
and the terrified jailor was thunderstruck to 
find that his victims had not departed, and the 
guilty persecutors, fearing a further demon- 
stration of God's wath, bad the prisoners go, 
but Paul oeing a good lawyer, and knowing he 
and his compatriot had been illegally dealt by, 

"Said unto them, they [the persecutors] 
have beaten us openly, unco?idemned, being 
Romans, ai.d have cast us into prison, and now 
do they thrust us out privily? Nay, verily, but 
let them coiiie themselves, and fetch us out." 

Our laws were borrowed from the Roman 
Pandects, which declared that no man should 
be 'scourged" (punished) uncondemned; and 
why should not our citizens be treated as fairly 
as Paul insisted on being treated by his Jew- 
ish, Republican persecutors, who sought to 
punish him "uncondemned," as Mr. Lincoln 
punishes Democrats? 

Again, when Paul was at Ephesus, a Roman 
silversmith, ^no doubt a contractor,) by the 
name of Demetrius, attempted to stir up sedi- 
tion against him, because Paul did not belong 
to his "party." He attempted to make the 
people believe that Paul was in some way 
"opposing the Government." and t'ae "multi- 



tude" (of Union Leaguers, no doubt,) raised a 
hue and cry again.st Paul. But the "Town 
Clerk" (no doubt a Democrat,) quieted the 
rabble by telling them if Paul and his follow- 
ers had committed anything against the law, 
the law should punish them. He said: 

"Wherefore, if Demetrius and the craftsmen 
[contractors, in the original, no doubt,] which 
are with him, have a matter against any man, 
the law is o/jcn, and there are deputies [law 
officers]; let them implead one another. 

"But if ye imagine anything concerning 
other matters, it shall be determined in a laiv- 
ful assembly."— Acts XIX— 38, 39. 

Again, when the clamoring Romans de- 
manded Paul's life before Festus, one of the 
Supreme Judges, who, in relating the case to 
King Agrippa, said: 

"It is not the manner [law] of the Romans 
to deliver any man to die before that he which 
is accused, have the accusers face to face and 
have license to answer for himself concerning 
the crime laid against him." 

After His Honor, Judge Festus had laid the 
case before King Agrippa, the King desired to 
see this strange man, Paul, and Festus sent for 
him, and when Paul came into Agrippa's au- 
gust presence. Judge Festus said: 

"King Agrippa. and all men which are here 
present with us, ye see this man about whom 
all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with 
me [they had probably called Paul a 'copper- 
head'] both at Jerusalem, and also here, cry- 
ing that 'he ought not to live any longer.'" 
[Equivalent to the bloodthirsty declarations of 
Senators AVilson and Jim Lane against the 
Democrats.] 

The last verse, Acts XXVI, reads: 

"For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a 
persoc, and not without to signify the crimes 
laid against him.'''' 

Here was a Roman Judge, near 2,000 years 
ago. addressing his King, and declaring it not 
only unlawful, but unreasonable to arrest a 
man charged with no crime, and without giving 
him a fair trial, and the privilege of confront- 
ing his accusers face to face, and this, too, 
when the Romans were engaged in war. 

, Would to God that our President and Lis 
party would read the New Testement, from 
which they could drink in the inspiration of 
reason, honor and law. Even the Jews had 
more respect for law, with all their religious 
fanaticism, than do our present rulers. 

THE N. YORK INDEPENDENT EIGHT FOR ONCE. 

In speaking of the arbitrary arrests of the 



254 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



Administration, the New York Independent re- 
marked : 

" These blundering, silly arbitrary arrests 
have rendered the Administration unpopular 
in many sections of the country. The people 
are jealous of their liberties, and they should he 
so. No loyal man objects to the arrest of a 
traitor, or of a man fairly open to suspicion, 
but arbitrary arrests of citizens to-day, who 
are released within a week, without charge, or 
an investigation, are as wicked and unjustifia- 
ble acts as they are foolish and impolitic. Mr. 
Stanton has been guilty of too many of these 
acts, for the welfare of the Administration and 
the Republican party .^'' 

Much of the virtue of the foregoing is dissi- 
pated in the over-anxiety for the fate of the 
" Administration" and the " Republican par- 
ty !" The cause of Civil Liberty is of little 
moment, to the Rev. Divine editor, as against 
the fate of the Republican party ! Like the 
penitent thief in the stocks, who did not re- 
gret the larceny, but manifested great contri- 
tion at having been caught ! 

WHAT A CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN THINKS 
OF IT. 

The Boston Advertiser., soon after the elec- 
tion in 1862, said: 

"We say, then, that the decision of the peo- 
ple, at the late elections, was a verdict against 
the course pursued by the radical managers, 
and a direct avowal of distrust of their policy 
and guidance. It was a popular condemnation 
of the confusion which they have caused in 
military affairs, of the little foresight and wis- 
dom shown by them in legislation; of the in- 
decent haste and declamatory violence with 
which they have disposed of great public ques- 
tions; of their factious course as regards the 
Executive, and their dangerous recklessness as 
to ovdmnvy constitutional safeguards. Against 
their rule the people had resolved to register 
a verdict." 

president's suspension of the writ of 

HABEAS corpus. 

The following is the Proclamation suspend- 
ing the writ of habeas corpus throughout the 
United States. We give it entire, as it may be 
convenient for reference: 

"Washinqion, September 15, 1863. 
'■'■By the Fresident of the United States. 
"a proclamation. 

^'Whereas, The Constitution of the United 
States has ordained that the privilege of the 
writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended 
unless in case of rebellion or invasion, the pub- 
lic safety may require it, and 

"TFAerecfs, A rebellion was existing on the 
3d day of March. 1863, which rebellion is still 
existing, and 



"TFAfrefls, By a statute which was approved 
on that day, it was enacted by the Senate and 
House of Representatives of the United States 
in Congress assembled, that during the present 
insurrection, the President of the United 
States, whenever, in his judgment the public 
safety may require, is authorized to suspend 
the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in 
any State throughout the United States, or 
any part thereof, and 

'■'•Whereas., In the judgment of the Presi- 
dent, the public safety does require that the 
privilege of the said writ shall now be suspend- 
ed throughout the United States, in cases 
where, by the authority of the President of the 
United States, military, naval and civil of&cers 
of the United States, or any of the leading 
persons under their command, or in their cus- 
tody, as prisoners of war, spies, or aiders and 
abettors of the enemy, or officers, soldiers or 
seamen, enrolled, drafted, or mustered, or en- 
listed in, or belonging to the land or naval 
forces of the United States, or as deserters 
therefrom, or othertvise amenable to military 
law, [under Order 38 or 90 this would include 
everybody and every case] or to the rules and 
articles of war, or to the rules and regulations 
prescribed for the military or naval services, 
by the authority of the President of the United 
States, or for resisting a draft, or for any other 
offences against the military or naval services 
[is not this broad enough to cover everything 
and everybody?] 

'■'■Noiv, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, Pres- 
ident of the United States, do hereby proclaim 
and make known to all whom it may concern, 
that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus 
is suspended throughout the United States, in 
the several cases before mentioned, and that 
this suspension shall continue throughout the 
duration of such rebellion, or until this proc- 
lamation shall, by a subsequent one, to be is- 
sued by the President of the United States, be 
modified or revoked. 

" I do hereby require all magistrates, attor- 
neys and other civil officers, within the United 
States, and all officers and others in the mili- 
tary or naval services of the United States, to 
take distinct notice of this suspension, and to 
give it full effect ; all other citizens of the Uni- 
ted States to conduct themselves accordingly, 
and in conformity to the constitution of the U. 
States, and the laws of Congress, in such case 
made and provided. In Testimony, &c. 
By THE President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Wm. H. Seward. 

This proclamation, be it rememberd,'was is- 
sued shortly after the fall of Vicksburg, when 
our arms were victorious in all the South West 
— When not a threatening ripple disturbed the 
placid North— no disturbance— no factious 
threatenings — no murmurings that boded illicit 
opposition — no organized menacing of the con- 
stituted authorities — no cause of fear — while 
the brightest rays of victory had penetrated 
the black and rapidly separating clouds of war 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK. 



255 



—just -when hope began to light up the gloomy 
horizon — came this proclamation, like a thun- 
derbolt from a clear sky ! No explanations 
are given. No reasons set forth — no " neces- 
ity " exhibited. The President takes this del- 
egated power second hand from Congress, with 
the power to make and adjudicate all laws, 
added to his own power as Executive. 

Is not this, in the language of Edward 
Livingston, " a refinement on Despotism ? " 

THE WAY THE MAGNA CHARTA WAS TREATED 
IN CONGRESS. 

We close this chapter with the following, 
taken from the proceedings of the House of 
Representatives, Dec. 17, 1863. It will bear 
preserving for the future : 

ARBITRARY ARRESTS 

"]\Ir. Harrington, (Dem.) offered the follow- 
ing resolutions, and demanded the previous 
question on their adoption: 

Whereas the Constitution of the United States (article 
one, section nine,] prpvides: "Dhe priviledge of the writ 
of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in 
cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require 
it;" and whereas such provision is contained in the por- 
tion of the Constitution defining legislative powers; and 
not in the provisions defining executive powers, and 
whereas the Constitution (article four of amendments) 
further provides : "The right of the people to be secure in 
their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unrea- 
sonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated," &c. ; 
and whereas the Thirty-Seventh Congress did by act claim 
to confer upon the President of the United States the pow- 
er at his will and pleasure to suspend the privilege of the 
writ of habeas corpus throughout the United States with- 
out limitation or conditions; and whereas the President of 
the United States, by proclamation, has assumed to sus- 
pend such privileges of the citizen in the loyal States; and 
whereas the people of such States have been subjected to 
arbitrary arrests without process of law, and to unreason- 
able searches and seizures, and have been denied the right 
to a speedy trial and investigation, and have languished in 
prisons at the arbitrary pleasure of the Chief Executive 
and his military subordinates; Now, therefore 

Resolved, by the House of Rejiresentaiives of the United 
States, That no power is delegated by the Constitution of 
the United States, either to the legislative or executive 
branch, to suspend the privilege of thewritof?ia6eas cor- 
pus in any State loyal to the Constitution and Government 
BOt invaded, and in which the civil and judicial power are 
in full operation. 

2. Resolved, That Congress has no power under the 
Constitution to delegate to the President of the United 
States the authority to suspend the privilege of the writ of 
habeas corpus, and imprison at his pleasure, without pro- 
cess of law or trial, the citizens of the loyal States. 

3. Resolved, That the assumption ot the right by the 
executiveof the United States to deprive the citizens of 
such loyal States of the benefits of the writ of habeas cor- 
2)us, and to imprison them at his pleasure, without process 
of law, is unworthy the progress of the age, is consistent 
only with a despotic power unlimited by constitutional ob- 
ligations, and is wholly subversive of the elementary prin- 
ciples of freedom upon which the Government of the Uni- 
ted States and of the several States, is based. 

4. Resolved, That the Judiciary Committee be instruct- 
ed to prepare and report a bill to this Ilouse protecting the 
rights of the citizens in the loyal States, in strict accord- 
ance with the foregoing provisions of the Constitution of 
the United States. 

Mr. Lovejoy, (Rep.) — Mr. Speaker — 

The Speaker — Debate is not in order. i 



Mr. Lovejoy — I want to state a fac* — ,. 

The Speaker — Debate is not in order. 

Mr. Lovejoy — Would it not be in order to 
move to refer these resolutions to a committee 
on Buncombe when it shall be appointed? — 
[Laughter.] 

The Speaker — It would not. 

Mr. Fenton, (Rep.) — I move to lay the reso- 
lutions on the table. ug| 

Mr. Davis, of Maryland, (Rep.) — I beg that 
gentleman will allow us to have a direct vote 
on the resolutions and reject them, so as to get 
done with this work of laying resolutions on 
the table. 

Mr. Fenton — I withdraw the motion to lay 
on the table. 

The previous question was seconded, and 
the main question ordered. 

Mr. Holman called for the yeas and nays on 
the resolutions. 

The yeas and nays were ordered. 

The question was taken, and it was decided 
in the negative — yeas 67. nays 90; as follows: 



Allen, James C. 


Harris, Benj . . 


O'Neill, John. 




Allen. William J 


Herrick, 


Pendleton, 




Ancona, 


Holman, 


Perrv, 




Baldwin, A. C. 


Johnson, William 


Radf'ord, 




Bliss, 


Kernan, 


Randall, Samue 


J 


Brooks, 


King, 


Robinson, 




Brown, James S. 


ICnapp, 


Rogers, 




Chandler, 


Law, 


Ross, 




Coffroth, 


Le Blond, 


Scott, 




Cox. 


Long, 


Steele, John B. 




(.ravens, 


Jlallory, 


Steele, William 


a 


Dawson, 


Marcy, 


Stiles, 




Dennison, 


JIcAllister, 


Strouse, 




Eden, 


McDowell, 


Sweat, 




Edgerton, 


McKinney, 


Voorhees, 




Eldridge, 


Middleton, 


Wadsworth, 




English, 


Miller, Willliam H 


.Ward, 




I'inck, 


Morris, James R. 


Wheeler, 




Ganson, 


Morrison, 


White, Chilton 


A. 


Grider, 


Nelson, 


White, Joseph 


W 


Hall, 


Noble, 


Winfield. 




Harding, 


Odell, 


Wood Fernando 




Harrington, 


NATS. 




67 


Alley, 


Frank, 


Norton, 




Allison, 


Garfield, 


O'Neill, Charles 




Ames, 


Gooch, 


Orth, 




Arnold, 


Grinnell, 


Perham, 




Ashley, 


Hale, 


Pike, 





Baldwin, John D. Higby, Pomeroy, 

Beaman, Hooper, Price, 

Blaine, Hotchkiss, Randall, Wm. H. 

Blow, Hubbard, A. W. Rice, Ales. U. 

Routwell, Hubbard, John H. Rice, Johh H. 



Brandegce, Hulburd 

Broomall, Jencks, 

Brown, Wm.Cr. Julian, 

Clark, Ambrose W.Kasson, 

Clarke, Freeman Kelley, 

Clay, 

Cobb, 

Cole, 

Creswell, 

Davis, Henry W. 

Davis, Thomas T. 

Dawes, 



Kellogg, F. A. 



Rollins, E. H. 

Scheuck, 

Scofield, 

Shannon, 

Sloan, 

Smith, 



Kellogg, Orlando Smithers, 



Dixon, 

Donnelly, 

Driggs, 

Dumont, 

Eckley, 

fliot, 
arnaworth, 
Fenton, 



Loan, 

Longyear, 

Lovejoy, 

Marvin, 

McBride, 

McClurg, 

Mclndoe, 

Miller, Sam'l. F. 

Moorhead, 

Morrill, 

Morris, Daniel 

Myers, Amos 

Myers, Leonard 



Spaulding 

Stevens, 

Thayer, 

Tracey, 

Van Valkcnbtu-gh, 

Washburne, E. B. 

Washburne, W. B. 

Whaley, 

Williams, 

Wilder, 

Wilson, 

Windom, 

Woodbridge, — 90. 



So the resolutions were rejected by a strict party yote 



256 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



SUPREME COURT OF WISCONSIN ON SUSPEND- 
ING THE WRIT. 

No one will doubt the extreme "loyalty" of 
the members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. 
That Court, in the celebrated Kemp case, de- 
cided that the President of the United States 
could not suspend the writ. Judges Dixon 
and Paine wrote out lengthy decisions. We 
only have room to quote from Judge P.'s de- 
cision, as follows: 

"Whether the writ of habeas corpus is legal- 
ly suspended or not, depends entirely upon the 
question whether it requires an act of Congress 
.to suspend it, or whether it may be done by 
the President alone; and this has been so fully 
and ably discussed, that whoever is now called 
on to decide it, can do little more than to indi- 
cate which side of the argument he adopts. — 
For myself, I entertain no doubt that it re- 
quires an act of Congress. The power to issue 
the writ is given by law. and the President 
cannot make a law.'''' 

And Judge Paine might have added, as he 
does, virtually, that Congress cannot delegate 
to the President the law making power. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

MORE REVOLUTIONARY SYMPTOMS. 

Mobbing of Democrats :inil Democratic Presses... Schcnck's 
Order Suppressing No\v.spapers...IIa8call's Despotic Note 
to thp "New York- Express". ..How tlie Republicans 
Love i'ree Speech... Mobbing of Douglas in Chicago... 
Republican Mob in Green County, Wis. ...Federals, Whigs 
and Republicans in Juxtaposition. ..Their Line of Con- 
sanguinity. ..Senator Doolittle vs. Political Doolittle... 
President Lincoln vs. Political Lincoln. ..Republicans 
in Congress Suppress Inquiry into Illegal Acts. ..Their 
Preaching vs. Practice. ..The Negro Voted Out of Illinois 
and Wisconsin. ..Abolitionists Selling Negroes for Cotton. 



MOBBING OF DEMOCRATS AND DEMOCRATIC 
PRESSES. 

Never was the spirit of bigotry, arrogance 
and intolerance more glaringly developed than 
in the jiarty opposed to the Democracy. No 
matter by what name they may hail — not matter 
■whether in or out of power — they have ever 
been disposed to carry their points and enforce 
their dogmas by low, vulgar epithets, gross de- 
nunciations, or if need be, by mobs and vio- 
lence. For years they have preached "free 
soil, free press and freedom," but the moment 
they came into power, they set about the most 
prescriptive intolerance, and sought to reduce 
all who did not endorse their every ism, to ab- 
ject slavery. They have mobbed Democratic 
presses in innumerable instances, and sougSt 
by military power to suppress the publication 



of any newspaper that exposed their manifest 
delinquencies, wrongs and wholesale plunder- 
ing of the public exchequer. 

They sought to silence the Ohio Crisis by a 
military mob — the editors of the Harrisburg 
Patriot $• Union were arrested on the most 
frivolous pretext, and after being kept in du- 
rance vile for four weeks, without accusation 
or proof of wrong, were "honorably dis- 
charged" without indemnity. Burnsidf. un- 
dertook to place the New York World and the 
Chicago Times beneath the iron heel of despot- 
ism, but the upraising of an outraged people 
forced the mad despots to relinquish for the 
time their insane purposes. 

We have not the room to give the details of 
all the cases under this head, but there is 
scarcely a moderately sized division of the 
country that has not been disgraced by out- 
rages upon the liberty of the press. If the 
ofiScial authorities could find nothing in a news- 
paper, which did not reflect their views, suffi- 
cient to build up an excuse for its suppression, 
by military "order," they managed to set in 
motion a mob to destroy i', as they did in 
scores of cases in Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, In- 
diana, Ohio, &c. 

In all these cases, the Republican presses 
have joined in the cry, and endorsed the out- 
rage. A few of the Abolition presses, of the 
old stock, to their credit, have not hesitated to 
denounce this blow at civil liberty. 

SCHENCK's order suppressing NEWSPAPERS. 

As a sample of a large class, we place on re- 
cord the following "Order" by the notorious 
Sciienck: 

"Headqbakters 8th Abmt Corps, 1 
"Baltimore, June 20, lS6o. j 

"The following newspapers have been sup- 
pressed within the limits of this Department, 
and the local press will not hereafter be allow- 
ed to publish extracts from their columns. 

"By order of the General Commanding. 

"The New York fVorU. 
"The New Y'ork Express. 
"The Cincinnati Enquirer. 
"The Chicago Times. 
"The New York Caucasian. 



"[Signed,] 



w. s. nsir, 

'Lieut. Col. and Provost Marshal. 



No reason is here given, for the best reason 
in the world — Schenck had no reason to give 
save his own malignity. We will here drop the 
curtain on this branch ot free despotism. 

Our "library would not be complete" with- 
out the following gem, which bears its own 
comments: 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



257 



IlEADiJUARTERa DISTRICT OF I.VDIANA, "> 

Department of the Ohio, v 

Indiauapoh's, May 5th, 1S63. j 

"To thi Editors of the New York Fxpress; 

'•Gents: — Some one has been kind enough 
to enclose me a slip from your paper contain- 
ing a copy of my Order No. 9, and your re- 
marks thereon. They are exceedingly witty 
and smart, and in your judgment, probably, 
dispose of the whole case. It may surprise 
you some to know that the order was issued 
after mature deliberation and consultation, and 
is being, and will be, carried out to the letter. 
It is fortunate for you that your paper is not 
published in my District. 

"Very truly yours, MILO S. IIASCALL, 

"Brijr-Gen. A'ols., CommaDdiug District." 

This demonstrates that kind of cheap des- 
potism which had its orign at Head Quar ters , 
and which has disgraced the age in which we 
live. 

HOW THE REPUBLICANS LOVE FREE SPEECH. 

On the 1st of September, 1854, Senator 
Douglas attempted to speak in Chicago, and 
to explain the principles of the Kansas-Nebras- 
ka bill. The Republicans, in utter ignorance 
of those principles, refused to listen, and the 
following, which we copy from the Wisconsin 
State Journal., (R^pO of Sept. 7, 1854, shows 
how they managed to prevent Mr. Douglas 
from discussing the measures which they had 
so ignorantly denounced. 

"Gentlemen, by the Nebraska Bill, the peo- 
ple are allowed the right of self government. 
(A voice, '"who appoints the Governor and 
Judges?'") The President ofthe United States. 
(Three groans for Pierce.) Reappoints Judges 
in every State in the Union, why should he 
not in Nebraska and Kansas? ("Read the 
section ofthe bill." "Read the bill''') The 
bill was published in one of your city papers 
to-day, and you can read at your leisure.— 
(Don't take that paper.) (A voice; "what a 
head.'') The best interests of the United 
States required that my bill should become a 
law, and that the right of the people to self- 
regulation should be recognized. (A voice, 
"let the niggers govern themselves." 

"Gentlemen, we are not talking about nig- 
gers, we are talking about the Nebraska-Ivjin- 
sas-bill. Gentlemen you have had a Conven- 
tion lately, in the First Congressional District. 
(Three cheers for AVashburne! Cries for the 
Harbor bill.) You can't hear anything about 
the harbor bill to-night, I am talking about 
the Nebraska bill, and I intend to talk about 
it. If you think to put a stop to the free dis- 
cussion of this measure, you are dealing with 
the wrong person. 1 shall stay here and talk 
as long as it suits my convenience. (Chorus: 
'We won't go home till morning, till morning, 
till morning. We won*t go home till morning, 
till daylight doth appear.' ") 



"The speaker then defied the crowd to put 
him down, and said that he should speak again 
and again if necessary. ('Good! good!' 'Doit 
more!' 'Try it again!') Another attempt to 
speak on the Nebraska question was succeeded 
by a perfect typhoon of discordant voices, and 
cries of 'Small Giant!' 'Little Dug!' 'Milli- 
ken!' 'Dr. McVicker!' 'Cook, carry him 
home!' 'Young America!' &c." 

This, be it remembered, was the Republican 
account. It does not come up to the reality. 

THE GREEN CO., (wiS.) MOB. 

About the 1st of August, 1862. the Republi- 
cans of Green county. Wis., organized them- 
selves into what they termed a Vigilance Com- 
mittee. They took all matters into their 
hands, such as defining and punishing treas- 
on, &c. They adopted Pope's "Army Oath," 
and required all to subscribe to it, or be rough- 
ly handled. They caught one old, respectable 
man, loyal and true to his country, and rode 
him on a rail for refusing to sign the following 
oath: 

"Ij , ofthe town of , in the coun- 
ty of Green, and State of Wisconsin, do sol- 
emnly swear that I am a loyal citizen of the 
United States of America, that I will bear true 
allegiance to the same, that I will to the ut- 
most of my ability support the government in 
its efforts to suppress the rebellion; that in 
rendering such support I will discountenance 
in every p«s3ible manner by word or action 
every sentiment or expression the tendency of 
which may be to encourage disloyalty to the 
government, and that I will not by word or 
deed, countenance any disloyal, secret organi- 
zation; and for the violation of this oath may I 
suffer the just penalty of the crime." 

Another by the name of Steve.s was rough- 
ly handled for the same set, and we let the 
Rociford (111.) Democrat, (Rep) tell the story: 

"Mr. John Steves, a well known citizen of 
Durand, and a very radical Republican in pol- 
itics, [the mob did not know his politics] we 
understand, had occasion to visit Monroe, Wis- 
consin, last week, and while there a vigilance 
committee of which that vicinity boasts had 
taken into their hands a supposed secessionist 
of the place to administer to him the oath of 
allegiance, and if he refused to do so to inflict 
upon him a proper punishment. The operations 
of the committee had drawn together a large 
and excited crowd. Mr. Steves looked on and 
saw that their victim was an old man, perhaps 
seventy years old, whom they were handling, 
as Mr. Steves thought, with a degree of vio- 
lence which was hardly removed from brutali- 
ty. To see an old man thus treated aroused 
his sympathy, and without stopping to consider 
the merits of the case as charged against the old 
man, in the name of common humanity remon- 
strated with the crowd, telling them that they 



258 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



ought to treat him more civily, and consider upon 
his case more dispassionately; — that the Trorst 
criminal who was to be hanged within the next 
half hour was entitled to a decent respect and 
inviolability of his person in the mean time. 

"The excited crowd instantly turned upon 
Mr. Steves, and he found himself in their hands 
and at the mercy of their excitement. The 
vigilance committee took his case in hand, as 
he learned upon being informed that they were 
then considering as to what should be done 
with him. In a few moments one of the com- 
mittee told him that he had one minute left to 
take the oath of allegiance or leave the town. 
Mr. Steves told them that he had not one word 
of objection to the sentiments of the oath and 
its purport, and as a voluntary transaction 
would take it a thousand times; but that he 
had not said a word or done a thing which 
gave them any reason to suspect his loyalty, 
and he should decline to take the oath upon 
compulsion. All that he had said was a plea 
for commonly civil, personal treatment towards 



an old gray haired man whom they had taken 
into their hands, and whom in the excitement 
of their anger he thought they were treating 
inhumanly. He asked to see the committee as 
a body and make a statement to them, believ- 
ing when they had heard all, they would see 
his case in the right light, and leave him to 
himself. The committee refused to see him, 
and at the expiration of the minute, the crowd 
took him, placed him upon a rail, and carried 
him on it to his wagon; and ordered him to 
leave town immediately. This accomplished, 
Mr. Steves, at the earnest solicitation of a 
friend whose goods he had been moving to Mon- 
roe, and whom as he was just starting in busi- 
ness there, he (Mr. Steves) did not wish to 
compromise, volunteered to take the oath of 
allegiance, and it was accordingly adminlstei'- 
ed to him. Thus relieving himself from the 
penalty of his refusal, he was allowed to re- 
main in town until next day, and then took his 
departure for home, satisfied with his visit to 
Monroe." 



FEDEEALS, 
FEDERAL. 

1796 to 1S14. 

DISSOLUTION. 



WHIGS AND REPUBLICANS IN JUXTRAPOSITION. 

WHIG. REPUBLICAN. 

1S44 to 1S48. 1S54 to 1S63. 



•'The Northern States can 
subsist as a nation — a Repub- 
lic — without any connection 
with the Southern. It cannot 
be contested that if the South- 
ern States were possessed of 
the same political ideas, our 
Union would be more close 
than separation, but when it 
becomes a serious question 
whether we shall give up our 
government or part with the 
States south of the Potomac, 
no man JVorth of that river, 
whose heart is not thoroughly 
Democratic, can hesitate what 
decision to make. 

"I shall, in the future pa- 
pers, consider some of the 
great events, which will lead 
to a separation of the United 
States — show the importance 
of retaining their present 
Constitution, even at the ex- 
pense of a separation — endea- 
vor to prove the impossibility 
of a Union for any long period 
in future, botht^from the moral 
andpolitical habits of the cit- 
izens of the Southern States, 
and finally examine carefully 
to see whether we have not al- 
ready approached to the era 
when they must be divided " 
— From Felharn's Pamphlet, 
1796. 

•'■The Union has long since 
been virtually dissolved, and it 
is full time that this part of 
the United States should take 
care of itself. — p. 19. 



DISSOLUTION. 

'■'■Resolved, Rather than see 
slavery established on Mexi- 
can territory as the result of 
this accursed war, it were bet- 
ter this Union should be at 
once dissolved. — Whig Reso- 
lution in Worcester, Mass.. 
1847. 

"On the 24th of February, 
1842, John Quincy Adams 
presented a petition in the 
House of Representatives, 
signed by a large number of 
citizens of Haverhill, Mass., 
for a peaceable dissolution of 
the Union, 'assigning as one 
of the reasons, the inequality 
of benefits conferred upon the 
different sections.' " — Blake's 
Ilistory of Slavery, p. 524. 

"We cannot possibly look 
favorably upon this war. Its 
first act was a gross outrage 
upon Mexico, and can it be 
supposed by Mr. Polk and his 
advisers, that an error so 
glaring — a crime so unpardon- 
able, as this Mexican war, can 
be whitewashed?" — 3It. Car- 
mel Register, 1847. 

"Were I a Mexican, I would 
welcome these invaders with 
bloody hands to hospitable 
graves." — Thomas Corioin, 
1847. 



DISSOLUTION. 

[Resolution adopted by tho American 
Anti-Slavery Society, New York, 
December, 185S.] 

'■•^Yhereas, The dissolution 
of the present imperfect and 
inglorious Union between the 
free and slave states would re- 
sult in the overthrow of slave- 
ry and the consequent founda- 
tion of a more perfect and glo- 
rious Union, without the incu- 
bus of slavery, therefore 

'■'■Resolved, That we invite 
a free correspondence with the 
disunionists of the South, in 
order to devise the most suit- 
able way and means to secure 
the consummation so devout- 
edly to be wished." 

^•Resolved, That it is the 
duty of the North in case they 
fail in electing a President 
and Congress that will restore 
freedom to Kansas, to revolu- 
tionize the government!" — 
Republicans of Green Co., 
Wis. 1856. 

Mr. Garrison made a speech 
in 1856, in which he declared; 

"I have said, and I say 
again, that in proportion to 
the growth of disunionism, 
will be the growth of Repub- 
licanism. * * The Union 
is a lie. The American Union 
is an imposture, and a coven- 
ant with death, and an agree- 
ment T^ith hell. * * I am 
for its overthrow. * * Up 
with the flag of disunion, that 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



259 



"The once venerable Con- 
stitution has EXPIRED BT DIS- 
SOLUTION in the hands of 
those wicked men who were 
sworn to protect it. Its spir- 
it, with the precious souls of 
its first founders, has fled for- 
ever. Its remains, with theirs, 
rest in the silent ionihf At 
your hands, therefore, we de- 
mand deliverance. Neto Eng- 
land is unanimous, and we an- 
nounce our irrevocable de- 
cree, that the tyrannical op- 
pression of those who at pres- 
ent usurp the powers of the 
Constitution is beyond endur- 
ance! — Address to Hartford 
Convention, 1815. 

"My plan is to withhold our 
money and make a separate 
peace with England." — Bos- 
ton Daily Advertiser. 1814. 



we may have a free and glori- 
ous Union of our own." 

"Tear down the fliuntinsjlie; 

Half-mast the starry flag; 
Insult no sunny sky 

With haie' s polluted rag!'' 
— XiW Tork Tribune,l9b4. 



OPPOSIXG THE "government," ETC. 

"On or before the 4th of 
July, if James Madison is noo 
out of office, a new form of 
governmsnt will be in opera- 
tion in the Eastern section of 
the Union, instantly after, the 
contest in many of the states 
ivill be, whether to adhere to 
the old, or join the neiu gov- 
ernment ! Like everything 
else, which was foretold years 
ago, and which is verified 
every day, this will also be 
vilified as visionary. Be it so. 
But, Mr. Madison cannot com- 
plete his term of service if the 
war continues! It is not pos- 
sible! and if he knew human 
nature, he would see it. — 
Federal Republican, Nov. 7. 
1814. 

"It is a time of d(^y that 
requires cautiousjealousy; not 
jealousy of your magistrates, 
for you have given them your 
confidence. * ■'' Cursed be 
he that keepth back his sword 
from blood. Let him that hath 
none, sell his coat and buy 
one." — Sermon 'of Rev. Dr. 
Parish, of Bosto', , July 4, 
1799. 

"The full vials of despotism 
ism are poured out on your 
heads, and yet you may chal- 
lenge the plodding Israelite, 
the stupid African, the feeble 
Chinese, the drowsy Turk, or 
the frozen exile of Siberia, to 
equal you in tame submission 
to the powers that be- * * 

"Here we must trample on 



OPPOSING THE "GOVERNMENT," ETC. 

"The voice of lamentation 
and war, heard all over the 
country, fi-om homes and fire- 
sides made desolate by the 
slaughter of fathers, and hus- 
bands, and brothers, is sweet 
music to the ears of the Pres- 
ident and his friends, and they 
seem ambitious to swell the 
chorus by increasing the vic- 
tims. * * * We rejoice 
to see a large and respectable 
number of Whig papers in 
this and other states taking 
ground against further appro- 
priations by &ongress of men 
and money for the Mexican 
cut throating business. This 
is as it should be." — Warren 
(0.) Chrinicle, 1847. 

"If there is is in the United 
States a breast worthy of 
American liberty, its impul- 
ses to join the Mexicans, and 
hurl down upon the base, sla- 
vish, mercenary invaders, 
who, born in a Republic, go 
to play over the accursed game 
of the Hessians on the tops of 
those Mexican volcanoes, it 
would be a sad and wofuiycy, 
nevertheless to hear that the 
hordes under Scott and Taylor 
were every man of them swept 
into the next world! What 
business has an invading army 
in this f " — Boston Daily 
Chronotype, 1847. 



OPPOSING THE "GOVERNMENT," ETC. 

Resolution adopted by the Essex 
County(Mass.)Anti Slavery Society 
Mav 16, 1S62. 

''Resolved, That the war as 
hitherto, prosecuted, is but a 
wanton waste of property, a 
dreadful sacrifice of life,_ and 
worse than all, of conscience 
and of character, to preserve 
and perpetuate a Union and 
Constitution which should 
never have esisted,and which, 
by all the laws of justice and 
htimanity, should iu their 
present form, be at once and 
forever overthrown." 



From Parker Pillsbury's Speech, 
April, 1862. 
"I do not wish to see this 
government prolonged another 
day in the present form. I 
have been for twenty years at- 
tempting to overthrow the 
present dynasty. The consti- 
tution never was so much an 
engine of cruelty and crime 
as at the present hour. I am 
not rejoiced at the tidings of 
victory to the northern arms ; 
I would far rather see defeat, 
etc." 

From Stephen F. Forters' Speech, 
Boston, 1802. 

"I have endeavored to dis- 
suade every young man I could 
from enlisting, telling them 
that they were going to fight 
for slavery." 

"On account of the repeat- 



260 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



the mandates of despotism, or 
here we must remain slaves 
forever." — p. 13. April 7. 
1814. 

"Sec. 2. And he it further 
enacted^ That if any person 
shall write, print, utter, or 
publish, or shall cause or pro- 
cure to be written, printed, 
uttered or published, or shall 
knowingly or willinijly aid in 
writing, printing, uttering or 
publishing any false, scanda- 
lous and malicious writing or 
writings against the Govern- 
ment (the party in power) of 
the United States, or either 
House of the Congress of the 
United States, or the Presi- 
dent of the United States, 
with intent to defame the said 
Government, or either House 
of the Congress, or the said 
President, &c." — Sedition 
Law, JuUj 17, 1798. 



ed expressions of disloyal and 
incendiary sentiments, the 
publishing of the newspaper 
known as the Chicago Times is 
hereby suppressed. — Burn- 
side'' s Order No. 84, Ju7ie 1. 
1862. 

"That any order of the 
President, or under his au- 
thority, made at any time du- 
ring the existence of the pres- 
ent rebellion, shall be a de- 
fense in all courts to any ac- 
tion or prosecution, civil or 
criminal," &c. — Extract from 
act sui^pending Hileas Cor- 
pus. March, 1863- 



KNOW NOTHINGISM. 

"The real cause of the war 
must be traced to the influence 
of worthless foreigners over 
the press and the deliberations 
of the Government in all its 
branches. — Response to the 
Messarje of Gov. Strong, of 
3lass., by the Assembhi. June, 
1814. 



KNOW NOTHINGISM. 

'If I had the power, I would 
erect a gallows at every land- 
ing place in the city of New 
York, and suspend every curs- 
ed Irishman as soon as he 
steps upon our shore.'' — Re- 
marks of Mathew L. Davis on 
receiving the news of the Dem- 
ocratic triumph in New York, 
in 1852. 

"It is our opinion, as our 
readers well know, that no 
man of foreign birth should be 
admitted to the exercise of the 
political rights of an Ameri- 
can citizen.'" — Albany Daily 
Advertiser. 

"We could not find any 
other remedy against the 
threatening danger, than are- 
peal of all naturalization 
laws.^' — Col. Webb, of New 
York. 

'■^All naturalization laws 
should be instantly repealed, 
and the term preceding the 
enjoyment of civil rights ex- 
tended twenty-five years." — 
31;. Clark, Whig Mayor of 
New York. 



KNOW NOTHINGISM. 

"Taken altogether, the 
squatter reception, last even- 
ing, fell below what had been 
promised, but furnished an in- 
stance of what a few determin- 
ed wire pullers can do with a 
few hundred voting cattle.''' — 
(alluding to the Irish and 
Germans.) — Chicago Tribune, 
Oct. 15, 1860. 

" We unhesitatingly aver that 
seven-tenths of the foreigners 
in our land, who boiv in obedi- 
ence to the Pope of Rome, are 
not as intelligent as the full 
blooded Africans of our state 
— 7ve will not include the part 
bloods.'' — Cleveland Herald. 



We might proceed almost ad iiifinitum, but 
Ihe above must sufiB.ce Our only object is to 
link together the principles of fraternism in 
a single group, between the old Federals and 
their progeny, so that the reader might see at 
a glance how well the three great parties, or 
rather the one party, with three great names. 



have agreed, voted, acted and thought alike. 
The above does not exhibit the strongest family 
resemblance— that feature, in all its various 
tints and hues, will be found scattered through- 
out this entire work. Let no Republican say 
he was not sired by a Federal. We have traced 
his geneology too clearly to admit of doubt. 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



261 



REPUBLICAN PREACillNO VS. PBACTICE. 

Senator Doolittle vs. Political Doolittle. 

On the 2(1 day of May, 186:2, Senator Doo- 
little made a speech in the Senate of the 
United States, in which he maintained that 
there was ample power under the Constitution 
for every emergency in war : 

LOOK O.N THIS PICTURE. 

"Sir, I repeat, that never before, in this 
body, nor in any legislative body the sun ever 
shone upon, were there graver questions raised 
than these. And yet, under all this responsi- 
bility, there are gentlemen who, in their 
eagerness to press this measure to a vote, 
smile at constitutional scruples and responsi- 
bilities. Sir, I am not one of those ; I con- 
fess that I can concur fully in the language of 
my colleague, and say when I am pressed to 
act upon questions involving these great re- 
sponsibilities, that I do so with a fear and ap- 
prehension — not the fear of any man here or 
elsewhere — for I know no man master on earth, 
but the fear that in the presence of that God, 
before whom I have taken an oath to support 
the Constitution, I may be pressed, under the 
excitement of the moment, when passion rules 
the hour, to trample it under my feet. 

"Mr. President, we are in arms to-day. We 
are at war. For whati? It is for this very 
Constitution — to maintain, protect and defend 
its supremacy in every state, everywhere, from 
Maine to Texas. To maintain that supremacy 
we send our sons to the battle field — we stake 
all we have and all we are, and I should re- 
gard myself wanting in manhood, as cowardly, 
shrinking from the performance of my duty, if, 
while my sons and my countrymen are iu the 
field, fighting the enemy, meeting danger and 
death in every form, I should not stand here 
in the defense of the Constitution, by every 
power God has given me — let it be assailed 
from what quarter it may. The only fear I 
have is, that I may not defend it as I should. 

" Mr. president, that constitution, let me 
say, is just as supreme in reserving powers 
from this government, as it is in granting pow- 
ers to it. Just as supreme in withholding as 
in conferring power. If this government, or 
any branch of it — if Congress or the Execu- 
tive, or the Supreme Court shall undertake to 
overturn its provisions, and to trample under 
their feet the rights reserved to the States and 
the people by it, it is just as much an attempt 
at revolution and rebellion as when the men in 
the insurrecticnar;/ states undertake to trample 
tinder their feet the powers ichich by it are given 
to this government. Either is REVOLUTION! 
And if either succeeds, it is an end to our 
whole system of republican government ! ! If 
the doctrine shall once prevail, and be acqui- 
esced in by the government, and the people of 
of the United States, that the constitution can 
be overborne ; that this Federal Government 
can usurp powers which are not delegated, but 



are expressly reserved to the States—*' " days 
of this Republic are already passed—;. • days 
of the Empire have begun, and we are jaejiar- 
ing to re-enact, on perhaps a grander scale, 
the history of the decline and fall of the Em- 
pire of Rome. [You were right, Mr. D.] 

"The maintenance inviolate of the rights of the states 
and especially the rights of each state, to order and con- 
trol its own domestic institutions, according to its own 
judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of pow- 
er on which the perfection and endurance of our political 
fabric depends. "—,[iyo?n the Chicago Platform. 

"Without that they cease to be states at aJl, 
[Mr. D. did not think then, perhaps, how soon 
he would be forced into the "state suicide" 
doctrine] and the Federal Government be- 
comes one vast, consolidated empire. This 
was as true in the beginning as it was in 1860, 
when we made it the pledge upon which we 
came into power, and it will be true, forever, 
whether men in the heat and passion of this 
hour shall heed it, or trample it under their 
feet. 

"This Constitution of ours gives to us all 
the powers which are necessary to meet even 
the exigencies of civil war. It is Just as perfect 
in this as in ang other respect. [For claiming 
this, Democrats have been called "Copper- 
heads."] It meets all the necessities of our 
situation, whether of war, insurrection or 
peace. The idea that at any time — for one sin- 
gle hour — this Constitution, because civil war 
exists, is dissolved, or gives way to martial 
law, as to something higher, and above itself, 
at the discretion or caprice of the President 
or Congress, or both together, is a heresy as 
fatal to free Government, and as full of evil as 
the whisperings of Satan to Eve iu the Garden 
of Eden. No, sir, no! The Constitution is 
just as much above mortial law as it is above 
civil law. From it alone are derived all the 
powers of the Government, and under it alone 
can they be exercised." 

NOW LOOK ON TUIS. 

On the 4th of June, 1863. Mr. political Doo- 
LITTLE made a speech before a meeting in Chi- 
cago, called to denounce the President for 
countermanding Burnside's Order, suppress- 
ing the Chicago Times, which speech demon- 
strates the facility with which "first rate fourth 
rate" statesmen can descend from the sublime 
to the ridiculous; and, here is the manner Mr. 
political Doolittle proposed to practice on 
the preaching of Mr. senator Doolittle. We 
quote fi-om the Chicago Tribune, of above date: 

" He (Doolittle) believed the exercise of 
the power in any part of the United States, to 
suppress newspapers, is simply a question of 
time and necessity. In New Orleans Gen. 
Butler suppressed newspapers, and even ex- 
ecuted a traitor. Has anybody found fault 
with that ? In many parts of the North papers 
have been suppressed, and justlg so. In my 
opinion (he Executive is clothed tvith discretion 



262 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



,n the time of war to do WHAT HE BEEl''^ 
FIT AND PROPER. He alluded to the re- 
voking order. Probably the President thinks 
the time hns not yet come when Chicago shall 
be put under martial law. But if any news- 
paper opposes the enforcing of the conscription 
law, or any other order the President thinks 
proper to give, that paper will be suppressed, 
and if need be, martial law proclaimed. We 
desire, if possible, to have the loyal people of 
the North united as one man, and wo must 
have it practically so, or it is of no avail. He 
regretted that there were still two political 
parties [suppression is a good way to get rid 
of one] — there should be but one, and that 
one united with a determination to put down 
the rebellion, but as it is, the President must 
control all men of all 2)<ifties^ and those that 
oppose the administration must suffer the con- 
sequences. If the time comes, and it becomes 
necessary, Mr. Lincoln will declare martial 
law, even in Chicago." 

Now, let the reader judge of Political Doo- 
little's "heresy," by Senator Doolittle'S 
declaration, abovC; as to martial law being 
"fatal to free government-"' We confess we 
are naturally too nervous to comment further 
upon such whiffling inconsistencies. They are 
degrading to the high character of an Ameri- 
can Senator. 

PRESIDENT LINCOLN VS. POLITICIAN LINCOLN. 

Look on this Picture. 
"I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, 
to interfere with the institution of slavery in 
the States where it exists. I believe I have no 
lawful right to do so, and I have no inclina- 
tion to do so. — President Lincoln in his Inau- 
gural. 

Then on This. 

"I order and declare that all persons held 
as slaves in the said designated states and parts 
of states, are, and hereafter shall be free. — 
Politician Lincoln in the Emancipation Pro- 
clamation. 

The Republicans have always professed to be 
for law and order, and Mr. Lincoln in his 
Vallandigham and Springfield correspond- 
ence, scouted the idea that he intended to 
violate law and the Constitution. This was the 
profession. What of the practice. 

In defiance of law a military Governor was 
appointed for the District of Columbia, which 
by the very terms of the Constitution, was to 
be forever under the exclusive control of Con- 
gress. 

Mr. WiCKLiFfE (Dem.) introduced a reso- 
lution in Congress to enquire under what law 
said Governor was appointed. 

Mr. Otis (Ptep.) moved to table the resolu- 



tion, and thus prevent all enquiry. This was 
carried by a strict party vote, 85 to 46. 

professions op equal rights to the ne- 
GBO ignored in practice. 

Several years ago the Republicans of Wis- 
consin passed a law, in pursuance to the Con- 
stitution, submitting the question to the peo- 
ple whether the negroes should vote, and 
notwithstanding the professions of that party 
to be in favor of the move, and their having 
12,000 majority, the negro was voted down by 
27,000 majority. 

In Illinois the disparity between profession 
and practice is vastly greater. In 1862 that 
State voted on a new constitution, two clauses 
of which related to the negro — one to exclude 
him from all privileges in the State, to prohib- 
it him from being on Illinois soil. Below is 
the vote in several intensely negroized coun- 
ties: 

Maj. for 5Iaj. ag'st 

Counties. Kegro. Negio. Rep. Maj. 

McHenry 1,.56T 2,0-19 

Boone 350 1,356 

Carroll I,4ir2 1,223 

Cook 10,000 4,000 

Henderson 1,443 261 

LaSalle 3,151 1,269 

Coles 2,800 3S 

While the Republicans had the vote to defeat 
the constitution, they voted down the negro, 
by adopting all the articles against him, some 
of which by over 100,000 majority. 

practice vs. preaching. 

Just before the election in Wisconsin, No- 
vember, 1863, the Sentinel, a Jacobin journal 
printed in Milwaukee, dcclaied that "Ae luho 
votes must fight.'''' 

Fortunately an opportunity occurred to test 
the sincerity of this vociferously patriotic oi'- 
gan. One of its editors was drafted, and in 
the next issue of the paper appeared the follow 
ing: 

"While Mr. L., (the editor) would make a 
tip-top soldier, he is too valuable to be spared 
for that occupation just now." 

This is a specimen of a large class. Mr. 
TiLDEN, of the N. Y. Independent, who had 
been vociferously abusing the "Copperheads" 
for not going to the war, was among those who 
drew a "prize" from the wheel of fortune, but 
instead of following his own precepts, he 
proved the value of his patriotism to be just 
§300, under the pressure of a dire "neces- 
sity." 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



263 



EEVELATIONS OF COTTON STECCLATION — 
TRADING NEGROES FOE COTTON. 

For years the Abolition politicians have been 
I rocking the cradle of liberty,, and singing the 
I lullaby of freedom, and the idea of buying and 
I selling "human 'flesh" as "chattels" was 
most terribly shocking to '.hem. The follow- 
ing, from a publication during the summer of 
1863, will speak for itself. The matter was 
hushed up, because Gen. Cubtis was a politi- 
cal General, but "when this cruel war is 
over" many facts blacker than the following 
will appear in the great record book of record- 
ed facts: 

"A commission is now in session at the west 
with Maj. Gen. McDowell at its head, investi- 
gating the conduct of Maj. Gen. Curtis and oth- 
er Republican officials, in conducting their mil- 
itary operations so as to secure the largest 
amount of cotton possible for their own private 
benefit. One of the richest revelations made is 
in reference to the trading off of negroes for 
cotton! The specification alleges that negro 
slaves had been taken from the plantations ujy- 
on the pretense of givi7ig them freedom under the 
PresidtnVs ^■emancipation edict,'^ and thus 
used as a substitute for coin. It has been fully 
proven before the investigating court. The 
officer charged with this lucrative speculation 
was Col. Hovey of Illinois, for7nerly the prin- 
cipal of the State Normal School at Bloommg- 
ton. The following is the testimony upon the 
subject. 

"Brice Suffield being called and sworn, testi- 
fied as follows: 

"Q. state whether you ever macie an expedition fur cot- 
ton on the steamer /ata?i, in September, 1862, and if so, 
Btate what occurred at that time? 

"A. I did. Our company, commanded by Capt. Twin- 
ing, was ordered out from a camp near Helena, to go down 
on the steamer latan. The captain of the boat told us 
the intention was to take us down to get some wood for 
fuel. We landed on the Mississippi side ot the rivei-, op- 
posite the cut-off— White river. There was aboard the 
boat one Brown, an overseer of Col. McGee's plantation; 
he was on the boat when we went aboard. After the 
boat was tied up. Brown went ashore; this was afterdark. 
Some of our company, supposing him to be a rebel soldier. 
asked him where he got his clothes. He told them he got 
them in the Mexican war. He went to the captain of the 
boat and told him it was all right — that the cotton would 
be in, in the course of a few hours. In due time Crown re- 
turned, bringing with him twenty-six bales of cutton. Af- 
ter the cotton was delivered, t/te boatmen, by order of the 
captain, put on shore fifteen nogrocs that had been used as 
hoat hands. 

"After getting them on shore, they tied i/ieOT,'after con- 
siderable struggling on the part of the negroes. In the 
tying operation one of the negroes escaped. After they 
were tied, Brown took them away. I was on picket post, 
and Brown, with the negroes, stopped at the post and bid 
me good evening, and then went on. Some time after 
taking the negroes away, Brown came back and wont 
aboard the Doat and stayed till daylight. A member of 
my company (don't recollect his name) told mo he saw 
Capt . Weaver pay Brown some money — we supposed for 
the cotton. 

"Q. Whatpartdid Capt. Twinmg or soldiers present take 
in the transaction of putting off the negroes? 

"A. Merely ticting under orders. They put us out on 
shore to guard against surprise. We guarded the boat. 



That was our duty. We had nothing to c^o with the ne- 
groes at all. 

"Q. On what date was this? 

"A. It was about the 24th of September. 

"Q. Was any military otHcer on board the boat besides 
the officers of your companj'? 

"A. I think not. There was a man on board, but I don't 
think he was a commissioned otficer. lie was acting as 
aid to Col. Hovey. His name is Wasliburne. 

"Q. How many negroes acting as deck hands were there 
on board the boat when you went aboard with your com- 
pany? 

'•A. Fifteen. 

'■Q. After these fifteen negroes were put ashore,did any 
other negroes come back with you as deck hands iu the 
service of the boat? 

"A. Ko sir. These negroes were taken on an expedition 
to the same place some roeeks before from the savie pla7iia- 
tion. 

'•Q. Under whose charge was that expedition? 

"A. Vol. Hovey. 

It would crowd the dimensions of our vol- 
ume to unreasonable proportions to continue 
this chapter to the full; we must therefore 
close it, to make room for more important 
matter. 



•CHAPTER XXXIII. 

HAVE WE A MILITARY DESPOTISM ? 

General Remarks. ..Educating the Army to the New Role 
...Adjutant General Thomas I'reaching Politics to the 
Soldiers. ..Punishes Soldiers for Political Opinions. ..How 
the Soldiers View it. ..Anti-Copperhead Letters and Re- 
solves from the Army. ..How Manufactured. ..General 
Remarks. ..General Halleck on "Crushing the Sneaking 
Traitors of the North "...Seward, Chase, Blair, i:c., at 
the Cooper Institute Meeting. ..Case of Lieut. Edgerly... 
Abolitionism a Test of a Soldier's Duty. ..The Conscrip- 
tion Act intended to Ignore the Constitution... "Boston 
Commonwealth" Admits that the Administration Em- 
ployed Bayonets to Carry Elections. ..Difference between 
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy. ..Atrocious Sentiments of 
Senator Wilson... A Leaf from French History.. .A Fact 
by Sallust ...Gov. Seymour on the Rotten-Borough System 
His Message of Jan. 5, 1864.. .A Flexible Platform... 
Henry Clay's Opinion. ..Free Speech Abolished. ..Senator 
Howe on. ..Petty Despotism.. .Arrests for Wearing Badges 
...Several Instances in Point. ..The Evidences of Ap- 
proaching De.spotism...A Link from " New York Tri- 
bune". ..To Doubt the Infallibility of the President is 
"Treason '"...Declaration of Independence Revised, ike. 

HAVE WE NOT A MILITARY DESPOTISM? 

That we have not only a military despotism, 
but the worst species known to civilized na- 
tions, is a fact that will not only soon be gen- 
erally known, but universally felt, unless a 
swift and radical change takes place in the 
aims and policy of the Administration. We 
say this in no spirit of controversy, nor do we 
utter it with factious feelings or ulterior pur- 
poses; but, we declare it in unutterable grief 
founded on the "logic of events.'" 

"We see in the modes and measures of the 
Administration that silent, yet sure, tiger-like 
tread in the path so often pursued by the ty- 
rants and despots of the Old "World, that we 
cannot mistake their purpose. The ingenuity 



264 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



of sophistry cannot make white appear black, 
nor transform a substantive, ponderable reality 
into a chimera or imponderable phantom. 
Those that have eyes, not totally blinded by 
passion, by prejudice, or by self-interest can 
see; those that have ears may hear — and hear- 
ing and seeing give evidence against a world of 
scepticism. 

We complain not of tliose measures of force 
necessary to meet and subdue force, when and 
where it shall be criminally exerted against 
the government. We grant that the laws of 
war should govern where war exists. We would 
withhold no necessary power to arrest and 
punish treason wherever it raised its guilty 
head. We have heard, in fact, no one com- 
plain of the existence of martial law when- 
ever and wherever a hostile force is too power- 
ful for the civil law. 

But we do complain, with fear that amounts 
almost to despair, of the striking down the 
great "writ of innocence" in states that ai-e 
loyal, and where no hostile force menaces the 
courts, or interferes with their peaceful func- 
tions. 'SNeknow there is na "necessity" for 
this. 

We do complain at the exercise of that pow- 
er which seizes any citizen without pro- 
cess or legal charges, and immures him in 
some bastile, or deports him beyond the reach 
of our laws, while our courts are free to try all 
crimes and have power to punish all ofiFences. 
We complain of this because we knoio there is 
no "necessity" for it. We do most seriously 
complain of military interference in elections, 
because there is not only no ''necessity" for 
it, but such interference is despotism. It is 
using the terror of the bayonet to prevent the 
people from choosing representatives opposed 
to the policy of these in power — a feat that the 
Emperor Napoleon III has not dared to perform, 
for it was but a few weeks since the people of 
Paris — right at the very throne of power — 
elected representatives opposed to the Empe- 
ror, by over six thousand majority. If abso- 
lute monarchs suffer a people to poll a free 
ballot, it seems that it might be tolerated in 
this land, imder the forms of Republicanism. 

The Indemnity Act which we publish in an- 
other portion of this work, is the cap shief of 
despotism. Under that act the President has 
unlimited, absolute power over the life and 
liberty of his "subjects." He may order one 
of his appointees to seize any man and put him 



in prison, and keep him there so long as it 
shall suit his pleasure; or he may order the 
seizure of his property and the scattering it to 
the four winds. He may order any man or any 
number of men, though as innocent as the un- 
born infant, to be shot and quartered, and 
there is no power to punish him or to call him 
to account. If he or the officers under him are 
prosecuted for malicious arrest, and imprison- 
ment, all that is necessary is, to plead that the 
act was done by order of the President or by 
one acting under his order. That ends the case. 

But says one, that law is unconstitutional, 
and can never stand the test of judicial scru- 
tiny. We grant it. Any Constitution that 
could tolerate the exercise of such power in 
peaceful communities, would be nothing but a 
charter of despotism. But how are you to get 
before the proper tribunal to determine the un- 
constitutionality of that act? You cannot do 
it; for the same act authorizes the President to 
suspend the writ of habeas corjnis, a license he 
has exercised to the fullest extent; so that no 
civil powers can have effect. 

And this was the very object of that law. No 
human being can see any necessity for sus- 
pending the privilege of the writ of habeas cor- 
pus, where the courts are free to act— ^no rea- 
son has been given, and none can be given, 
except the one reason that despotism always 
finds a means to accomplish its ends. 

Our government is undergoing a revolution 
at the North as well as at the South. The 
party in power, as we have fully shown in the 
foregoing pages, have put themselves on record 
in favor of a different government fromfthat of 
our fathers. They spit upon and deride the 
Constitution. But they knew they could not 
change this government to that of a military 
despotism, except by and through the means of 
military power. Hence, they have stricken 
down the civil and erected the military stand- 
ard. We are now virtually under martial law. 
We can exercise no civil functions that do not 
suit the pleasure of the Military Dictator. 
This is the land-mark we have reached to-day. 
No man can deny this fact, and if this power 
is not exercised in ever]/ particular, it only- 
shows that the historian was correct when he 
asserted as a general maxim that 

"New born despotism is both timid and cau- 
tious, and seldom reaches its altitude at one 
bound, but chooses rather to approach it by 
slow but sure degrees." 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



■^65 



It is a shTQvrdj}olic>/ to allow the people for a 
while some of their rights, lest a counter rev- 
olution migh*^ be inoonvenient and troublesome. 

EDCCATIXG THE ARMY TO THE NEW ROLE. 

Look to our army. Has it been only the 
object of the -'powers," to educate that army 
in the arts and sciences of war, and lo make 
it efficient as against the foe? By no means. 
That from the first, that army has been tamper- 
ed with; and more pains has been taken in 
certain quarters to bring it up to the required 
standard of political discipline, than to make 
it efiScient in military acquirements cannot be 
doubted. Let us cite a few facts from the 
scores we have in store. 

ADJUTANT GENERAL THOMAS PREACHING 
POLITICS TO THE SOLDIERS. 

• In 1862, Adjutant General Thomas was sent 
out to the West, ostensibly to look after con- 
trabands, and organize negro regiments; but 
his real object seems to have been to make 
political speeches to the soldiers, and to re- 
quire 0/ them unequivocal recognition of the 
political policy of the Administration. 

About the time when he first made his ap- 
pearance in the army of the West, the celebrat- 
ed "anti-copperhead resolutions'' began to 
pour foith from the army, deluging the whole 
North, with the most blood-thirty denunciations 
and threats against a majority of the people at 
home, threatening that as soon as the army 
should return they would exterminate the ' 'cop- 
perheads"'" (meaning Democrats,) with fire and 
sword. These epistles and resolves, it is be- 
lieved were instigated by this Adjutant Gener- 
al Thomas, who set that ball in motion to ef- 
fect the Northern elections. But, although 
many of those bloodthirsty resolves were repre- 
sented to have been passed by a unanimous vote 
in most instances, yet it is in proof, and as soon 
as Ave dare publish a long array of private cor- 
respondence, and not subject good brave sol- 
diers to the severe punishments that would fol- 
low their exposure, we shall give to the world 
evidence that in most cases the soldiers either 
silently permitted those diabolical resolutions 
to pass, without protest (for fear of the conse- 
quences) or by their silence were claimed as 
having assented. 

HOW THE SOLDIERS VIEW IT. 

Below we give an extract from a letter writ- 
ten by a member of the 12th Wisconsin Infan- 
18 



try to his brother in the Legislature of 1863, 
which was published in the Wisconsin Patriot 

"Some of our officers got togethei last Sun- 
day and passed a number of resolutions, which 
I presume you have seen before this, for they 
were sent to the State Journal* to be publish- 
ed. * * * Some of the resolutions were 
voted on by some of the soldiers, and some 
were strongly opposed to them, but they have 
since come to consider on the political object 
of the resolutions, and that the real purpose is 
to keep them longer a fighting for the negro, 
without one ray of hope for the Union, and 
all to give certain officers a certain share of 
ths spoils of cotton and other trophies, and 
from a pretty general conversation with the 
boys of the regiment, I believed that if called 
upon to-day to vote on those resolutions, that 
not five of the rank and file in the whole regi- 
ment would vote for them, though from the 
reign of terror which prevails over the soldier 
who is not much better in the eyes of the offi- 
cers than a nigger, they would remain passive, 
as many of them do, when called upon by 
shoulder straps to aid political schemes or cot- 
ton forays. 

"We are all under ban here, but if the sol- 
diers — the 'boys,' I mean, dared to speak their 
honest sentiments, there would be a hot row in 
camp. * * I would not dare to speak my 
sentiments here, as I now write them to you, 
for if I were not immediately locked up and 
punished by some picked guard, I should be 
subject to extra-hazardous services, and in one 
way or another be made to pay dearly for wri- 
ting what I knoiv to be true," &c. 

We have hundreds of such articles before 
us, but this must suffice as a sample, which 
demonstrates the fact that the army is being 
used to propogate political ideas and dogmas. 

After Adjutant General Thomas had suc- 
ceeded in getti. g a series of threatening reso- 
lutions issued from each camp, he took to har- 
ranguing the soldiers, to get expressions from 
them direct in favor of the political policy of 
the Administration, punishing such as refused 
to hurra for such measures. Startle not, read- 
er, for we shall let 

GEN. THOMAS SPEAK FOR HIMSELF. 

After Adjutant General Thomas returned 
to Washington, he rendered his own account ia 
his own way, of his acts in the West: 

"I was compelled to speak to the troops, 
[who "compelled" him, except it was the Pres- 
ident, his superior?] along the route — speak- 
ing in one day some seven or eight times. 
During my tour I met an Irish Regiment, the 
90th Illinois, from Chicago — men who read the 
Chicago Times. After talking to them awhile, 

*This paper had published he resolutions as having 
been unanimously passed. 



MO 



FIYE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



',1 proposed three cheers for the President of 
the United States. These were given heartily. 
Three ckeers were then proposed for the sotlled 
policy of the United States, [the Administra- 
tion] in reqard to negroes. This was met by 
cries of -l^oV 'No!' 

"The Colonel was absent, and the Lieut. 
Colonel was in command. I enquired what 
such conduct meant? The Lieut. Colonel en- 
deavored to excuse the men by saying that they 
had no opportunity to look over the matter. 
I replied 'you are not telling the truth, air! I 
know that they have been discussing this ques- 
tion for a week past. I know the fact if you 
do not.' The officer was coniderably morti- 
fied. [It is well for Adjutant Gen. Thomas 
that he did not provoke that kind of "mortifi- 
cation" which an Old Hickory would have 
manLfested.] 

"J ordered those who were opposed to this 
poVicy of the government, to step forward, and 
said / knew the regiment had seen considerble 
service and fought ivell! but I also knew there 
was but little discipline observed among them 
— that I wanted a distinct recognition of this 
doctrine — that was the first with me. Several 
stepped forward. They were instantly seized 
and sent to the guard-house. 

"I then left the regiment, telling them I 
would give them a week to consider what they 
would do. At the next Station I met the Col 
of the regiment, who begged that I would leave 
the matter in his hands, and he would see that 
the men were tnught tho duty of soldiers. I 
complied with the reque.-st." 

Such is .the confession (we use the term in 
its legitimate sense) of this political avant 
courier — this man, who supported the traitor 
Beeckinridge on the platform that the con- 
stitution carried slavery everywhere, and pro- 
tected it. This is the man who attempted to 
abolitionize the army, and what he lacked in 
offers of promotion he made up in "military 
discipline,"' threats and punishment. 

Now. let us enquire what right has the Ad- 
ministration to own and control the private 
opinions of those who fight the battles of the 
country? This political Ajas admits they 
feught well — no complaint ever rested against 
them for any dereliction of military duty — but 
they were "instantly seized and placed iii the 
guard house," and for what? Because they 
could not forswear t^ieir manhood — deny their 
political principles — as sacred to them as their 
religion, and acknowledge what they believed 
to be a lie. 

Who will have the courage to face posterity 
in the mirror of history, and say this was 
right? If soldiers "fight well" and obey all 
the lawful military commands of their supei'i- 
ors, in the name of God and their country, 



what more ought to be required of them? But 
no, this will not do. The Administration has 
a purpose in view. No one can be so foolish 
and illogical as to believe the "powers" care a 
fig for the private opinions of soldiers so long 
as they do not come in contact with the pur- 
pose of said "powers." But, suppose we are 
correct in awarding motives of despotic domin- 
ion in the radical leaders, whould we not look 
for just such measures? A despotism could 
not be consummated without the aid of the 
army. That army must be moulded to the 
very purpose in view. All conservatism must 
be forced out of the army by the pressure of 
discipline, so that when the time for action 
shall come, that army can be relied on, in 
every emergency. If it should become neces- 
sary to march into the North and murder the 
"copperheads" (the Democrats) the soldiers 
must be first prepared for it. Heno the "an- 
ti-copperhead resolutions," committing the 
army by threats to this very thing. Hence, 
the bloodthirsty epistles of Secretary Stanton 
to the Cooper Institute meeting, and the blood- 
thirsty speeches of Senators AVilson, Lane, 
and others — hence, the bloodthirsty and in- 
flammatory articles in the radical press. 

GEN. HALLECK AS A TUTOR. 

The Republicans had a meeting in Union 
Square, in Aprilyi 1863. A a;reat number of 
Abolition celebrities were there, who threw 
out bloody threats and hints. Gen. Halleck 
was not present, but he wrote a letter from 
which we seclect the following Robesperrian 
threat : 

"We have already made immense progress 
in this war — a greater progress than was ever 
before made under similar circumstances. Our 
armies are still advancing, and if sustained by 
the voice of the patriotic millions at home, they 
will ere long crush the rebellion in the south, 
and then place their heels upon the heads of 
sneeking traitors in the North. 

"Very resiiectfuUy, yoviral:i't serv't 

'■W. II. UALLKCK, Usuoral-in-Chiel," 

Not content with uttering this bloodthirsty 

threat against two millions of voters in the 

north, as Mr Hallegk, but he adds the weight 

of hi's high office, as "General-in-Chief." 

OTHER SENTIMKNTS AND THREATS. 

Mr. Seward also wrote a letter in which he 
remarked, in his most grandiloquent elo- 
quence: 

"Let us ask each other no qnes'ions about 
how the nation shall govern itself," or '**who 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK^ 



26T 



shall preside in its councils in the great fu- 
ture," &c. 

This is the same syren song, under the nar- 
cotic and "v piaiic" influence of which Greece, 
Rome and Athens went to sleep, to wake no 
more. 

Mr. Chase in speaking of slavery to the 
same meeting said: 

'•What matter now how it dies? Whether as 
a consequnce or as an object of the war — what 
matter." 

Mr. Post Master General Elair also spoke 
at that meeting, and illustrated the Ad- 
ministration's new definition of "treason;" 
spoke of the 

'•Creatures in the Free States * * spared 
by the clemency of the Administration, that 
call themselves Democrats. But these men in 
the North are only so many men on gibbets.''^ 

TDE CASE OF LIEUT. EDGEELEY. 

As exhibiting further the object of the Ad- 
ministration to compel the army through fear 
of punishment to succumb to the political 
schemes and purposes of the Administration, 
we place before the reader the following ex- 
tract from 

•SPECIAL ORDER NO. 110. 

"War Derartment, Adjbtant Gexeral's Office, ? 
WASniNGWJ.v, March 1.3, 1S63. 3 
"33- By direction of the President, the 
following officers are hereby di.s missed the ser- 
vice of the United States. * * Lieut. A. 
G. Edgerly, 4th New Hampshire Volunteers, 
for circulaiing C^pperheml tkkets, and doing 
all in his power to promo':e the rebel cause 
Tmeaning the Democratic ticket] in his state. 
"By order of the Secretary of War. 

"L. TIIOMACf, Adjutant General. 
"To the Governor of New Ilanipshire." 

We hardly know how to command language 
adequate to express the official turpitude of 
this transaction. Here, the only charge that 
was brought again t the Lieutenant, was vo- 
ting the Democratic ticket. For that is just 
what it amounts to. It is the first time in the 
history of this or any other government, that 
the vile nicknames of party have been used in 
QfEcial orders emanating from the high officers 
of Government. It shows the revolutionary 
spirit of those in power, and the act itself, 
■demonstrates beyond a cavail, that it is the in- 
tention of the "powers that be'' to use what 
power they have to compel the army to become 
the agent, when the decisive hour shall arrive, 
to crush out the last remnant of liberty, and 
40 throw a wall of bayonets around the throne 



of despotism. If this is not the legitimate 
meaning, aim and purpose of such acts as we 
have here recorded, then wo confess to a la- 
mentable incapacity to read men's intentions 
by the light of their conduct- 

THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 

This act by the last Congress was an unnec- 
essary violation of the Constitution, for the 
same objects could have been obtained strictly 
in occordance with the Constitution. But that 
would not suit the purposes of despotism. The 
Constitution of the United States clearly 
places the militia under the control of the 
states, until called into actual service by the 
United States. 

Section 2, of Art. II., of the Constitution of 
the United States, declares that the President 
shall be 

"Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of 
the United States, and of the militia of the 
several States, when called into the actual ser' 
vice of the United States." 

By this it would seem that the militia be- 
longs to the States, and is exclusively under 
State control, until actually called into the ser- 
vice of the United States. 

Subdivisions 14 and 15 of Sec. 8, Art. I., 
also make similar provisions. 

But, the Conscription Act ignores the consti- 
tution entirely, (so decided by the Supreme 
Court of Pennsylvania) because it calls upon 
the people, and enrols them as the United 
States militia, without reference to the States. 
This is just what one would expect from those 
who intended to establish a despotism, for if 
the soldiers were called for by the mode pre- 
scribed in the fundamental law, and it turned 
out that they were actually being used for des- 
potic purposes, tbe States might refuse to grant 
them, and thus the purposes of despotism 
might be thwarted. But as it is — if the con- 
scription act can be fully carried out, troops 
may be obtained to any number without asking 
their consent of the States. 

When the conscription bill was on its passage 
in the House of Representatives — 

"Mr. WicklifFe offered an amendment that 
the men thus called into service shall be by the 
Governors of the States org-inized into com- 
panies and regiments, with officers to command 
them, appointed by the authority of tach 
State, according to the provisions of the con- 
stitution of the United St^ates Rejected, aye* 
55, noes 103." 



268 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



This clearly demonstrates the real purpose 
of the radicals — to place the militia of the 
States at the unlimited command of the Presi- 
dent, for any and whatever purposes he chooses 
to employ them. 

We have already alluded to the despotic pow- 
er by which a Democratic convention was 
broken up in Kentucky— how the Kentucky 
election was controlled under martial law — 
how the sword controlled the elections in Mary- 
land, Delaware, Missouri, &c. These out- 
rages were thus avowed and excused by the or- 
gan of Gov. Andrew and Chas, Sumner: 

"The Thirty-eighth Congress is about to as- 
semble. The Senate will have a large admin- 
tration majority, and the House one sufficiently 
large to elect the caucus nomination for Speak- 
er, Clerk, and other officers. We say this with- 
out having carefully examined the tables, for 
we assume that the administration would not 
have resorted to its somewhat extraordinary 
means of carrying elections in the Border 
States, unless it had been sure that these 
means, successfully used, would give it a 
working majority. We do not find fault with 
the machinery used to carry Maryland and 
Delaware. Having nearly lost the control of 
the House by its blunders in the conduct of the 
war from March, 1861, to the fall of 1862, the 
administration owed it to the country to recov- 
er that control somehoiv. To recover it regu- 
larly was impossible; so irregularity had to be 
resorted to. Popular institutions will not suf- 
fer, for the copperhead element will have a 
much larger number of members in both 
branches than it is entitled to by its popular 
vote. Ohio, with its ninety thousand Republi- 
can majority, will be represented by five Re- 
publicans and a dozen or more copperheads. — 
It is fitting that this misrepresentation of pop- 
ular sentiment in the great state of the West 
should be offset, if necessary, by a loyal dele- 
gation from Maryland and Delaware, won even 
at the expense of military interference. If laws 
are silent amid the clank of arms, we must take 
care that the aggregate public opinion of the 
country obtains recognition, somcAow or other. ^^ 
— Boston Commonwealth. 

That is a pretty bold defense of villainy.— 
The Commonivealth is an organ of the Gov. 
Andrew negro school of politics, and he open- 
ly advocates the use of the bayonet against the 
ballot. We suppose those who advocate giving 
Mr. Lincoln "all the men and all the money 
he wants,'' will be highly delighted with this 
use made of them! 

Such despotic acts committed by any other 
party would be denounced with the most ve- 
hement bowlings, but being committed by the 
"loyal" party, they are considered all right, 



and this reminds us of the answer of the Eng- 
lish Bishop to the question: 

"Pray, my lord, is it not difficult to trace 
the exact line between orthodoxy and hetero- 
doxy?" 

To which the more honest than discreet di- 
vine replied: 

"Not at all, nothing can be more simple. 
Orthodoxy is my doxy, and heterodoxy is any 
other man's doxy'.' 

This illustrates the intolerent arrogance of 
Abolitionism: 

WHAT SENATOR WILSON SAID. 

In a speech he made during the Maine can- 
vass at Brunswick in that state, just preceding 
the election, he declared: 

"We shall subjugate the rebel states; that's 
the word — subjugation! And we will conquer 
the rebellion in New York. For ty-five regiments 
are there to do it, every soldier of which, as I 
told you before, would sooner shoot a copper- 
head than a rebel soldier." 

A LEAF FROM HISTORY. 

The following extracts are from Allison's 
History of Europe, vol. 1, chap. 14, should be 
read to be appreciated, by the light of the 
Vallandigham trial, and such diatribes as 
we have quoted from Senators Wilson, Lane, 
Halleck, &c.: 

"In pursuance of these views, St. Just made 
a labored report to the general police of the 
commonwealth, in which recapitulated all the 
stories of conspiracies against the Republic, 
explaining them as efforts of every species of 
vice against the austere rule of the people, and 
concluding with holding out the the necessity 
of the government striking icithotit intermis- 
sion till it had cut off all those whose corrup- 
tion opposed itself to the establishmtnt of vir- 
tue. "The foundation of all great institu- 
tions," said he, "is terror. Where would now 
have been an indulgent Republic? We have 
opposed the sword to the sword, and its power 
is in consequence established. It has emerged 
from the storm, and its origin is like that of 
the earth out of the confusion of chaos, and 
of man who weeps in the hour of nativity." 
As a consequence of these principles, he pro- 
posed a general measure of proscription 
against all the nobles, as the irreconcilable op- 
ponents of the Revolution: "You will never, " 
said he, "satisfy the enemies of the people till 
you have re-established tyranny in all its hor- 
rors. They can never be at peace with you; 
you do not speak the same language; you will 
never understand each other. Banish them 
by an inexorable law; the universe may re- 
ceive them, and the public safety is our Justi- 
fication.^^ He then proposed a decree which 
banished all the ex-nobles, all strangers from, 



SCRAPS FEOM MY SCRAP-BOOK" 



269 



Paris, the fortified towns, and seaports of 
France; and declared hors la loi whoever did 
not yield obedience in ten hours to th^ order. 
It was received with applause by the conven- 
tion, and passed, as all the decrees of govern- 
ment at that time, by acclamation. * * * 

"The trial of these unhappy captives was as 
brief cs during the massacres in the prisons 
' -Did you know of the conspiracy of the prisons 
Dorival?" "No.'' "I expected no other an- 
swer. "Are you not an ex-noble?" "Yes," 
To a third: "Are you not a priest?" "Yes, 
but I have taken the oath.'" "You have no 
right to speak; be silent." "Were you not 
architect to Madame?" "Yes, but I was dis- 
graced in 17SS." "Had you not a father-in- 
law in the Luxembourg?" "Yes." Suck 
were the questions which constituted the sole 
trial of numerous accused; no witnesses were 
called; their condemnations were pronounced 
almost as rapidly as their names were called: 
the law of the 22d Prairial had dispensed with 
the necessity of taking any evidence, when 
the court were convinced by moral presump- 
tions. The endictments were thrown off by 
hundreds at once, and the name of the indi- 
vidual merely filled in; the judgments were 
printed with equal rapidity, j|in a room adjoin- 
ing the court, and several thousand copies cir 
culated through Paris by little urchins, ex- 
claiming, amid weeping and distracted crowds, 
"Here are the names of these who have gained 
prizes in the lottery of the holy guillotine." — 
The accused were executed at leaving the 
court, or, at least, on the following morning. 

"Since the law of the 2"2d Prairal had been 
passed, the heads fell at the rate of fifty or 
sixty a. day. "This is well," said Fouquier 
Tinville; "but we must get on more rapidly in 
the next decade; four hundred and fifty is the 
very least that must then be served up." To 
facilitate this immense increase, spies were 
sent into the prisons in order to extract from 
the unhappy wretches their secrets, and desig- 
nate to the public accuser those who might first 
be selected. These infamous wretches soon 
became the terror of the captives. They were 
enclosed as suspected persons, but their real 
mission was soon apparent from their insolence 
their consequential airs, the preference shown 
them by the jailers, their orgies at the doors 
of the cells with the agents of the police. They 
were caressed, implored by the trembling pris- 
oners, and received whatever little sums they 
had been able to secrete about their persons, to 
keep their names out of the black list; but in 
vain. The names of such as they chose to de- 
nounce were made up in a list called, in the 
prisons, "The Evening Journal," and the pub- 
lic chariots sent at nightfall to convey them to 
the Conciergerrie preparatory to their trial on 
the following morning. 

Says Sallust, 

"All bad actions spring from good begin- 
nings," 

and while the objects as originally declared by 
Congress, for the prosecution of this war, 



challenged the respect of every patriot in the 
land, the "bad actions" that have sprung from 
the "good beginning" may well turn our at- 
tention to the bloody 14th chapter in Allison's 
History. 

GOV. SEYMOUR ON THE ROTTEN BOROUGH 
SYSTEM. 

We had intended to offer some suggestions 
on the President's last message and proclama- 
tion, but Gov. Seymour has said all that is ne- 
cessary much better than we could say it. We 
therefore copy that portion of his message de- 
voted to national affairs: 

VIEWS OF GOV. HORATIO SKYMOUR. 

KxprcssoJ in his Annual Message to tlie Legislature of 
New York, delivered .January .5th, lS6i. 

The past year has been crowde<l with events, 
both civil and military, of the greatest inter- 
est. The establishment of a national bank 
system; the issue of the enormous amounts of 
paper money, which is made a legal tender; 
the adoption of a law for coerced military ser- 
vice; the act indemnifying and shielding offi- 
cials charged with offences against the persons 
and property of citizens: the suspension of the 
writ of habeas corpus in peaceful and loyal 
communities, are measures which go far to- 
wards destroying the rights of States and cen- 
tralizing all power at the national capital. 

The executive and military oiEcials assume 
to declare martial law and to arrest citizens 
where the courts are in undisturbed operation, 
to try them by military tribunals, and to im- 
pose punishments unknown to the customs of 
our country; to administer arbitrary test oaths; 
to interfere with the freedom of the press an^ 
with State and local elections by military de- 
crees and the display of armed power. 

The President claims the right to do acts be- 
yond the civil jurisdiction, and beyond the leg- 
islative power of Congress, by virtue of his 
position as Commander-in-Chief. In this as- 
sumption he is sustained by both branches of 
Congress, and by a large share of the people 
of the country. The proceedings of Congress 
and the action of the Executive and military 
officials have wrought a revolution. The civil 
power, the laws of States and the decisions of 
the Judiciary have been made subordinate to 
military authority. At this time, then, we are 
living under a military government, which 
claims that its highest prerogatives spring from 
martial law and military necessities. These 
acts have been sustained by the army and ac- 
quiesced in by the people. This revolution, 
if permanently accepted, must be recognized 
as an overthrow of established and cherished 
principles of government. Hereafter it will 
force itself upon the attention of the Ameri- 
can people, who will then see and feel its na- 
ture and results. To their decision in calmer 
hours this subject must be referred. 

If these measures of military, political and 
financial consolidation break down, their fail- 



270 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



ure will show the wisdom of the constitution 
in -withholding from the general | overnment 
powers it cannot exercise wisely and well; and 
it will establish the rights of States upon a 
basis firm and undisputed, and will make the 
general government strong by confining it to 
one jurisdiction. In the end we shall return 
to principles from which we have been drifting. 

"In the meanwhile, we are threatened with 
other calamities which demand our immediate 
attention. The rights of the people and the re • 
straints of the constitution can be reasserted 
whenever the public shall demand their resto- 
ration, but it is believed the power of the pop- 
ular voice will rescue us from the calamities of 
national bankruptcy or national ruin, when 
these have befallen u . The progress of events 
has brought us to a point where we are com- 
pelled to contemplate these calamities and to 
consider how they may be averted. 

"While it is a duty to state plainly my views 
about public affairs, I shall do so in no spirit 
of controversy or of disrespect for the opinions 
of those who differ from me. The questions of 
of the day are beyond the grasp of any mind to 
comprehend in their influence or results We 
see them from different stand-points, and we 
reach conflicting conclusions. None but the 
ignorant, the bigoted, or the designing will 
make these differences of views occasions for 
reproach or contumely. The times demand 
outspoken discussions. When we see good and 
earnest men, under the influence of some ab- 
sorbing sentiment, overlooking the great prin- 
ciples of good government, trampling upon 
usages and procedures which have grown up 
with the history of liberty in the civilized 
world, we are warned that none of us can 
claim to be above the influence of passions or 
of prejudices. While I do not agree with those 
upon the one hand who insist upon an uncon 
ditional peace, or with those, upon the other 
extreme, who would use only unqualified force 
in putting down this rebellion, I demand for 
them, what I ask for those who concur in the 
views which I present, a fair, dispassionate, and 
respectful hearing. Let not the perils of our 
country be increased by bigotry, by partizan 
passions, or by an unwillingness to allow opin- 
ions to be uttered in forms and modes in accord- 
ance with the usages of our people and the 
Spirit of our laws. 

Since the outset of the war the national ad- 
ministration has asked for nearly two millions 
of men. To keep up our armies, the average 
annual calls have been more than 400.000 men. 

In addition to the loss of life, there has been 
a diversion of labor from peaceful productive 
occupations to war, which destroys the accu- 
mulated wealth of the country. 

The Secretary of the Treasury states the 
national debt will be sixteen hundred millions 
in July next. This does not include unascer- 
tained demands. In our former wars these 
latent claims have nearlj doubled the liabili- 
ties supposed to exist during their progress. If 
the war should cease to-daj', the national in- 
debtedness could not fall short of two thousand 
millions of dollars. To this must be added the 



aggregate of State, county and town obligations. 
The cost of carrying on the war hereafter will 
be increased by larger pay to our soldiers, by 
interest accounts, by enhanced prices of pro- 
visions, transportation and material, growing 
out of a depreciated currency. The proposed 
issue of three hundred millions of paper money 
under the national banking scheme, in addition 
to the vast sum now put out by government, 
will add to the inflation of prices. 

Conflicting views are held as to the amount 
of indebtedness which would cause national 
bankruptcy, and with regard to the length of 
time the war can go on without causing nation- 
al ruin. All agree in this: that there is an 
amount of indebtedness which would overwhelm 
us with bankruptcy; that there is a duration of 
war which would bring upon us national ruin. 
The problem with which we have to grapple is: 
How can we bring this to a conclusion before 
such disasters overwhelm us? Those perils 
must be confronted 

Two antagonistic theories are now before the 
American people for bringing to an end the de- 
structive contest in which we are engaged. The 
first is that contained in the resolution adopted 
by Congress and approve.! by the President at 
an eai'ly day, and upon the faith of which the 
people of this country, without distinction of 
party, have furnished more than one million of 
men to our armies, and vast contributions to 
the treasure of our country. 

This resolution consecrated the energies of 
war and the policy of the government to the 
restoratiou of the Union, the support of our 
constitution. It was a solemn appeal to the 
civilized world that the objects thus clearly set 
forth justify a war which not only concerned 
the American people, but which also disturbed 
the commerce and industry of all nations. 

The opposite theory prevents the return of 
the revolted States upon the condition of lay- 
ing down their arms; it denies them a political 
existence which enables them to come back 
upon any terms; it holds that States in the re- 
volted section of the country must be "re-estab- 
lished;" that the States hereafter made may or 
may not hold the names or boundaries of the 
States thus destroyed., although "it is sugges- 
ted as not improper" that these names and 
boundaries, &c., shall be maintained. 

The war, therefore, is not to be brought to 
an end by the submission of these States to 
the constitution and their return to the Union, 
but it must be prolonged until the South is 
subjugated to the acceptance, not of its duties 
under the constitution, but of such terms as 
may be dictated. Until States are thus "re- 
established" it is held that there are no politi- 
cal organizations which can bring back the peo- 
ple te their allegiance; that if the nine States 
spoken of lay down their arms, and should re- 
turn to the performance of their duties, they 
would not be recognized nor received. This 
theory designs a sweeping revolution in the 
section of our country now in rebellion, and 
the creation of a new political system by virtue 
of executive decrees. 

Is this calculated to stop the waste of blood 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK. 



1:71 



ind treasure? If the South is revolutiouizpd. 
its property devastated, its industry broken up 
and destroyed, will this benefit the North? 

Those who urge the restoration of the Union 
and the preservation of our constitution con- 
tend that, in addition to upholding our armies 
and our navies, every measure of wise states- 
manship and conciliatory policy shall be adop- 
ted to bring this war to a successl'ul close. 

Only the ends for which this war was begun 
should be sought; because they are the most 
easily attained, most beneficial when gained, 
and in their support the most varied, the most 
enlarged, and the most patriotic influences can 
be exerted. 

On the other hand, it is insisted that the war 
shall be prolonged by waging it for purposes 
beyond those avowed at the outset, and by 
making demands which will excite a desperate 
resistance. A demand is made that the people 
of the South shall swear to abide by a procla- 
mation put forth with reluctance, and which is 
objected to by a large share of northern people 
as unwise and unjust, as it makes no distinc- 
tion between the guilty and the innocent. — 
They are to take an oath to which no reputable 
citizen of the North of any party will sub- 
scribe; that they will uphold any future proc- 
lamations relating to slavery. They are to 
submit themselves to uttered and unuttered 
opinions and decrees. No longer regarding 
the war as directed against armed rebellion. 
It is to be waged against people, property and 
local institutions! It is held that the whole 
population within the limits of certain States 
are stripped of all political rights until they 
are purged by Presidential clemency. 

The disorganization and destruction of the 
South are not to save us from the cost of war. 
The plan for the future government of the se- 
ceded States demands the maintenance of 
armies and a continued drain upon the persons 
and property of our people. Whenever one- 
tenth of the voters of either of these States 
shall submit themselves to the conditions im- 
posed, they may form new governments with 
new or old names and boundaries. This in- 
considerable minority is to be supported in the 
exercise of power by the arms and treasure of 
the North. There will be no motives on their 
part to draw the remaining population into the 
support of the governments thus created. — 
There will be every inducement of power, of 
gain, and of ambition, to perpetuate the con- 
dition of affairs so favorable to individual pur- 
poses. It will also be for the interest of the 
national administration to continue this system 
of government, so utterly at variance with a 
representative policy. Is not this the same 
mistaken theory upon which other nations 
have tried to govern their dependencies? Has 
complete subjugation for centuries produced 
by the quiet, the obedience to law, the order, 
the security to life and property, the kindly 
feelings or the mutual contributions to pros- 
perity which belong to real peace? 

Governments thus formed would represent 
not the interest of their citizens but the wills 
and interests of the power that creates and 



s\istains them. The nine States thus coufrolled 
would balance in the House of liepreseiitatives 
in the choice of President, and at all times in 
the Senate. Now York, Pennsylvania Ohio, 
Illinois. Indiana. Massachusetts, Mis.souri, 
Kentucky, and Wisconsin, with a unircd popu- 
lation of 16,533,383. which is more th m one- 
half of that of our whole country The one- 
tenth who would accept the proclamation for 
the pi ice of power would not only govern the 
States made by Executive decrees. b\it they 
would also govern the North. Vi'hile the plan 
is harsh to the body of the Southern iteople, it 
is still more unjust towards the North. Four- 
teen hundred men in Florida would halnnce in 
the Senate of the United States the power of 
New York. Less than 70.000 voters in the 
nine States named in the President's procla- 
mation would wield a power sufficient to weigh 
down that of the nine most populous States in 
the Union. 

We would thus have, with the nominal States 
of Eastern and AVestcrn Virginia, a system of 
rotten boroughs which would govern the Union 
and, destroy the representative nature of our 
government. This, in connection with exist- 
ing inequalities in State Representation, would 
be a dangerous invasion of the rights of a ma- 
jority of the American people. It would ena- 
ble an administration to perpetuate its power. 

It it a fact full of significance that every 
measure to convert the war against armed re- 
bellion into one against private property and 
personal rights at the South, has been accom- 
panied by claims to exercise military pcwerin 
the loyal States of the North. 

The proclamation oC^ emancipation at the 
South, and the suspension of the writ oUiabeas 
corpus at the North; the confiscation of jirivate 
property in the seceding States, and the arbi- 
trary arrests, imprisonments, and banishment 
of the citizens of loyal States; the claim to des- 
troy political organizations at the South, and 
the armed interference by government in 
local elections have been cotemporaneous 
events. 

These acts at first were justified upon the 
ground that they were necessary to save the 
national existence- AVe now find that new and 
more extreme claims to arbitrary power are 
put forth when it is declared that the strength 
of the rebellion is broken, and that our armies 
are about to trample out every vestige of its 
incendiary fires. More prerogatives are assert- 
ed in the hour of triumph than were claimed 
as a necessity in days of disaster and of dan- 
ger. 

The doctrine of southern disorg.anization 
and revolution is a doctrine of national bank* 
ruptcy and of national ruin; it is a measure for 
lasting military despotism over one third of our 
country, which will be the basis for military 
despotism over the whole land. It does not 
contemplate the return of our soldiers to their 
families, or relief from the cost and sacrifices 
of war. It will make an enduring drain upon 
our homes, and impose crushing burthens upon 
our labor and industry. It will open a wide 
and lasting field for speculation and fraud. It 



272 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



tends to perpetuate power by making and un- 
making States, as the interests of factions may 
dictate. It will be a source of internal disor- 
der and disquietude, and national weakness in 
our external relations. It will give dangerous 
allies to invaders of our soil. 

If this war is to make a social revolution 
and structural changes in great states, we 
have seen only its beginning. Such changes 
are the work of time. If they are to be made 
by military power, it must be exerted through 
long iierioda. Whether white or black troops 
are used, the diversion from labor and the cost 
of war will be equally prolonged, and we have 
just entered upon a course of certain cost and 
uncertain results. No such changes as are 
n.ow urged have ever, in the world's history, 
been without struggles lasting through more 
than one generation of men. 

What has government acowmplished in the 
territories wrested from rebei}i'>n by the valor 
of our armies? Has it pacified them? Has it 
revived the arts of peace? Has quiet and con- 
fidence been restored? Is commerce renewed? 
Are they not held as they were conquered, at 
the Cipense of northern blood and treasure? 
Are not our armies wasted by holding under 
armed control those who, under a wise and 
generous spirit, would have been friends? The 
spirit which prompts the harsh measure of sub- 
jugaiion has driven olf many in the border 
states, who, at the crisis of our country's fate, 
broke away from their ancient sympathies with 
the seceding states and clung to the Union. 
States which, by the elections of the people, 
ranged themselves upon the side of the consti- 
tution, are not allowed the free exercise of the 
elective franchise. In some quarters discon- 
tent has been increased; in no place has the 
wisdom of government gained us allies. 

There is but one course which will save us 
from national ruin. We must adhere to the 
solemn pledges made by our government at 
the outset of the war. 

We must seek to Restore the Union and to 
uphold the Constitution. To this end, while 
we beat down armed rebellion, we must use 
every influence of wise statesmanship to bring 
back the states which now reject their consti- 
tutional obligations. We must hold forth ev- 
ery honorable inducement to the people of the 
South to assume again the rights and duties 
of American citizenship. 

We have reached that point in the progress 
of the war, for which all have struggled and all 
"have put forth united exertions. Our armies 
and navies have won signal victories; they have 
done their part with courage, skill and success. 
By the usage of the civilized world, states- 
manship must now exert its influence. If our 
cause fails, in the judgment of the world, it 
•will be charged to the lack of wisdom in the 
Cabinet, and not to the want of bravei-y or 
patriotism in the army. The great object of 
Tictories is to bring back peace; we can now 
with dignity and magnanimity proclaim to the 
world our wish that states, which have long 
been identified with our history, should re- 
sume their positions in the Union. We now 



stand before the world a great and successful 
military power. No one can foresee the latent 
victories or defeats which lie in our course if 
force and force alone is to be exerted. The 
past has taught us the certain cost of war and 
the uncertainties of its results. 

In this contest belligerent rights are neces- 
sarily conceded to the South. The usages of 
internation.al warfare are practiced in the re- 
cognition of flags and the exchanges of pris- 
oners. Is it wise to put ofl" the end of the 
war and thereby continue a recognition which 
tends to familiarize the public mind in our 
own country, 8-ad in the world at large with 
the idea that w* are disunited into two dis- 
tinct nationalities? A needlessly protracted 
war becomes disunion. 

Wise statesmanship can now bring this war 
to a close, upon the terms solemnly avowed at 
the outset of the contest. Good faith to the 
public creditors; to all classes of citizens of 
our country; to the world, demands that this 
be done. 

The triumph won by the soldiers in the field 
should be .followed up and secured by the^peace- 
making policy of the statesmen of the Cabinet. 
In no other way can we save our Union. 

The fearful struggle which has taught the 
North and the South the courage, the endur- 
ance and the resources of our people, have 
made a basis of mutual respect upon which a 
generous and magnanimous policy can build 
lasting relationships of union, intercowrse and 
fraternal regard. If our course is to be shap- 
ed by narrow and vindictive passions, by venal 
purposes, or by partisan objects, then a patri- 
otic people have poured out their blood and 
treasure in vain and the future is full of dis- 
aster and ruin. 

We should seek not the disorganization, but 
the pacification of that section of our country 
devastated by civil war. 

In this hour of triumph appeals should be 
made to States, which are indentified with the ^ 
growth and greatness of our country, and with a 
some of which are associated the patriotic " 
memories of our revolutionary struggle. Every 
generous mind revolts at the thought of des- 
troying all those memories that cling about the 
better days of the Republic, that are connect- 
ed with the sacrifices of the men who have _ 
made our history glorious by their services in ■ 
the Cabinet, in the forum, and in the field. t| 

The victories which have given our govern- 
ment its present commanding position were 
won by men who. rallied around and fought be- 
neath the folds of a flag whose stars represent 
each State in our Union. If we strike out of 
existence a single State, we make that flag a 
falsehood. When we extinguish the name of 
any one of the original thirteen States, we dis- 
honor the historic stripes of our national ban- 
ner. Let the treasonable task of defacing our 
flag be left to those who war upon our govern- 
ment, and who would destroy the unity of our 
country. 

Faith in our armies and to our citizens de- 
mands that we keep sacred the solemn pledge 
made to our people and to the civilized world 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



273 



when we engaged in this bloody war, "that it 
was not waged in any spirit of oppression, or 
for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, or 
purpose of oyerthrowing or interfering with the 
rights of established institutions in those states, 
but to defend and maintain the supremacy of 
the Constitution, and to preserve the Union 
with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the 
several states u-nimpaired; and that, as soon as 
these objects are accomplished the war ought 
to cease.' HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

A FLEXIBLE PLATiORM. 

The following platform (says the Corydon 
Democrat) we have arranged to suit all 
parties. The first column is the Secession 
platform; the second is the Abolition platform; 
and the whole read together is the Democratic 
platform. The platform is like the Union — as 
a whole, it is Democratic; but divided, one- 
half is Secession and the other Abolition: 



Hurrah for 

Secession 

We fight for 

The Confederacy 

We love 

The rebellion 

We glory in 

Separation 

We fight not for 

Reconstruction 

We must succeed 

The Union 

AVe love not 

We never said 

We want 

Foreign invention 

We cherish 

The stars and bars 

We venerate 

Southern Chivalry 

Death to 

Abe Lincoln 

Down with 

Law and order 



The Old Union 

Is a curse 

The Constitution 

Is a league with hell 

Free Speech 

Is treason 

A free press 

Will not be tolerated 

The negro's freedom 

Must be obtained 

At every hazard 

We love 

The negi'o 

Let the Uziion slide 

The Union as it was 

Is played out 

The old flag 

Is a flaunting lie 

The habeas corpus 

Is hateful 

Jeff. Davis 

Isn't the government 

Mob law 

Shall triumph 



THE PURSE AKD THE SWOBD. 

The chief objection of Patrick Henry to 
the ratification of the Constitution, was what 
he feared would be the yielding of the purse 
and sword to the President. In a speech in 
the Virginia Convention he thus replied to a 
member who attempted to show that the Pres- 
ident could never obtain control of the purse 
and sword under our constitution: 

"Let him tell me candidly, where and when 
did freemen exist when the purse aad the 
sword were given up from the people? Unless 
a miracle in human afi'airs interposed, no na- 
tion ever retained its liberty after the loss of 
the purse and the sword. Can you prove by 
any argumentative d<^duction thai it is possible 
to be safe without one of them? If you give 



them up, you are 
bates. 



lone.''— [See Elliott's De- 



Mr. Clay, in a debate in the Senate, said: 

"The two most important powers of civil 
government are those of the purse and the 
sword. If they are seperate, and exercised by 
difl'eront responsibe Departments, civil liberty 
is safe, but if they are united in the hands of 
one individual, they are gone." 

FREESPEECU ABOLISHED. 

We have seen, as another link in the chain 
of despotism now forcing for the people, that 
free speech is no longer tolerated, except as it 
may suit the pleasure or whim of the President 
or some of his appointees. 

Senator T. 0. Howe in his celebrated Ripon 
(Wis.) speech said: 

"I reply that if free speech be stifled upon 
ani/ one sut'ject the Union is alreadij absolutely 
and inevitably lost!'- 

This is none the les.-i true because Senator 
Howe now upholds a dynasty that has stricken 
down free speech — mobbed and destroyed a 
free press, and claims tho right to annihilate 
both at pleasure. 

PETTY DESPOTISM. 

The Abolitionists gave to the Democrats the 
vile nickname of "Copperheads." Finding 
that such nickname might be typical of "Lib- 
erty," they began to wear badges made of the 
old copper cent, with the profile of Wasiiinq- 
TON on one side and the word "Liberty" on 
the other. This badge had nothins to do with 
the Southern cause — it represented no idea in 
connection with it, nor did it manifest the least 
sympathy for that cause, but the radicals, ever 
ready to summon an excuse for their despotic 
conduct, chose to say that the Copperhead 
badge was an emblem of "disloyalty." The 
"Government," as in other small matters, 
joined in with the low grade of cheap politici- 
ans and gave orders to arrest all who should be 
found wearing one of the liberty heads. The 
following, as a sample, we clip from the Chi- 
cago Tribune of April, 1863: 

"At Cairo, several wearers of Copperhead 
badges have been arrested, to be dealt with. 
It has passed beyond a pleasantry, and those 
who so mark themselves, tvill find that rhey are 
marked for examination! " 

The following was telegraphed to the Asso- 
ciated Press: 

'•C.iiBO, Afrillt;, 1.363. 

"Nine persons were arrested here this even- 
ing for wearing the Copperheud badge." 



274 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



Thus did the head ofiScers of a great and 
magnanimous nation, professing the Christian 
faith, and boasting of intelligence, league with 
the miniature politicians to hunt down all who 
should wear any device to distinguish them from 
their vile persecutors. 

We may search every lane and alley of history 
for a parallel of this small greatness. 

THE EVIDENCES OF ArPEOACHIJJG DESPOTISM. 

When CoLU.MBUs was on his first voyage to 
America, his faith in the existence of land to 
the west of him was confirmed by various float- 
ing weeds, logs, &c., and the appearance of 
birds, for he knew those things could not ex- 
clusively exist without land. So, in our voy- 
age towards the unknown coast of the future, 
we know that despotism of some kind lies in 
our way, for we have seen so many floating evi- 
dences of it. As one of those evidences, we 
cite the following from the New York Tribune: 

'•In times of war every blow struck at the 
measures of the Government [the Administra- 
tion] though designed only to afi'ect a change 
of Administration, really afi'ords aid and com- 
fort to the enemy. ^' 

These extravagant claims of unlimited ac- 
quiescence in everything the Administration 
may do or propose, are sure and certain evi- 
dences of approaching despotism, for the claim 
would not be set up, unless it was thought 
proper to enforce it. If it be true that any op- 
position to the measures of the Administration 
is "aid and comfort to the enemy," then it is 
treason as defined by the Constitution, and no 
matter what the President may do or propose, 
the least opposition is treason. Such a dsctrine 
would land us in the lowest depths of despot- 
ism. 

Again says the Tribune: 

"To doubt the infallibilty of the royal or 
ministerial good judgment [of the President] 
is to doubt the greatness and glory of the 
country, and the smallest dissatisfaction be- 
comes akind of petty treason.''^ 

We must be near the rocks and breakers of 
despotism, when we meet such arguments, 
floating on the tide of popular madness. 

DECL.A.RATION V.F INDEPENDEXOE EEVI8ED. 

The following was prepared by the author 
for a 4th of July occasion, and is here insert- 
ed as the most proper way to present the in- 
dictment against the radical policy: 

When, in the course of political events, it be- 



comes necessary for the people to dissolve the 
oflicial bands that have bound them to an un- 
just, unwise and tyranical Administration, and 
to assume to change that Administration, a de- 
cent respect for the opinions of mankind re- 
quires that they should declare the causes 
which impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that 
all citizens of the loyal states, are, by the fun- 
damental law. free and equal, and endowed by 
their Creator and the Magna Charta with cer- 
tain inalienable rights, that among these are 
the liberty of speech, liberty of the press, and 
the liberty to properly criticise the acts of all 
public officers. That to secure these rights, onv 
Government was instituted, deriving its just 
powers from the consent of the governed, and 
whenever the administration of this govern- 
ment becomes destructive of these ends, it is 
the right and the duty of the people to change 
such Administration.basing their policy on such 
principles and organizing power in such form, 
under the fundamental law, as to them shall 
seem most likely to affect their safety and hap- 
piness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that an 
honorable Administration in times of great 
public danger, should not be changed for slight 
and transient causes, and accordingly our ex- 
perience hath shown that our people are more 
disposed to sufi"er while evils are sufiferable than 
to right themselves by any other than consti- 
tutional means. But, when a long train of 
abuses and usurpations. pursuing invariably the 
same objects, evince the design to reduce the 
people under absolute despotism, it is their 
right — it is their duty — to throw off such Ad- 
ministration, and to provide new guards for- 
their future security. Such has been the pa- 
tient suffering of this people, and such is now 
the necessity which const rains them to change 
the administration. 

The history cf the present Executive is a 
history of repeated wrongs, injuries and usur- 
pations, all having a direct tendency to the 
establishment of an absolute tyranny and des- 
potism over these states; to prove which, let 
facts be submitted to a candid world. 

He has obstructed the administration of jus- 
tice, by requiring his subordinates — creatures 
of his own will — to resist, vi et armis, the le- 
gal mandates of the loyal judiciary. 

He has arbitrarily usurped power to subject 
the liberties of our citizens, who acknowledge 
full allegiance to our laws, to the whim or ca- 



price of military tribunals 
•pring of his own choice. 

He has forcibly arrested and held in durance 
lie. judges on the bench, while in the exercise 
of their loyal and leg.J functions. [See the 
case of Judge Constable.] 

lie has combined with others to subject us 
to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, 
and unknown to our laws, by instructing sub- 
alterns, subject to his own pleasure, to create 
by proclamation a criminal code, in direct an- 
tagonism to our laws. 

He has created a multitude of new ofBces, 
lud sent hither swarms of oflBcers, to harrass 
ur people, and eat out their substance. 
Pie has affected to render the military inde- 
pendent of, and superior to, the civil power, in 
direct violation of the fundamental law. 

He has, in innumerable instances, deprived 
our citizens of the benefit of trial by jury. 

He has, arbitrarily, and without excuse 
suspended that great charter of civil liberty, 
the Writ of Habeas Corpus, in violation of the 
Constitution, as solemnly declared by the Su- 
preme Court. 

He has endeavored to extinguish state sov- 
ereignty, by giving his assent to law obliter- 
ating state lines, without the assent of the 
people, thus striking down the last constitu- 
tional safeguard of a free people. 

He has practically annulled laws enacted 
over his own signature, providing against arbi- 
trary arrests and illegal seizures. 

He has, for many months, pursued aline of 
policy which, if not arrested, will alter, fun- 
damentally our form of Government. 

He has appointed men to fill the highest offi- 
ces of trust, responsibility and honor, notori- 
ously incompetent and corrupt, as a remuner. 
ation for political services. 

He has been, and now is, quartering among 
the loyal people of the North, large bodies of 
armed soldiery, without apparent necessity, but 
as it is believed, to sow the seeds of alarm 
among the people, to inaugurate a conflict, and 
to create a pretended necessity for a declara- 
tion of martil law, for purposes more safely 
imagined than described. 

He has encouraged unprovoked assaults on 
defenelessc citizens by soldiers, incited by offi- 
cers amenable alone to his power, by neglect- 
ing or refusing to issue his proclamation 
against such abuses, and failing to bring the 
offenders to justice. 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-EOOK. 

wholly the off- 



275 



He has invaded the sanctity of private dom- 
icils at the dead and criminal hour of night — 
dragged forth their occupants, guilty of no 
crime, as he himself publicly affirms — and 
then after a mock trial, before a picked mili- 
tary commission, that dare not offend their su- 
periors, transported the victim beyond his 
civil jurisdiction. 

He has endeavored to suppress the liberty of 
speech, and only failed to suppress the liberty 
of the press through fear of the dreadful con- 
sequences. 

He has forced citizens into extradition be- 
yond the limits of their own states, and with- 
out the pale of laws to which they owed fealty, 
without charges or legal trial, to be imprison- 
ed in loathsome dungeons, for pretended of- 
fences. 

He and his radical advisers have endeavored 
to mould the popular branch of Congress to 
their own partizan purposes by a no less dis- 
honorable schecie than a "rotten borough" 
system, so long the standing reproach to the 
British crown. This has been done hy admit- 
ting members chosen by small fractions of the 
people in the seceded states, under military 
coercion, after first extorting pledges to give 
their votes for measures the most radical and 
destructive. 

He and his political confrers have rendered 
the elective franchise a mockery and the ballot- 
box a fraud, by counting a pretended army 
vote, given hundreds of miles beyond their 
state jurisdictions, managed, controlled and re- 
turned hy partizan zealots, without legal res- 
traint and beyond the reach of sanitary laws — 
to set aside the known will of the people 

He has sought to render the military — the 
joint sacrifice and pride of all parties — a po- 
litical engine, by discharging from the service 
of their country, and affecting to dishonor and 
disgrace good and valiant officers, for no other 
offense than exercising the elective franchise 
as they deemed proper for the public weal. 

He has subjected loyal citizens to harsh 
and unusual punishment for no other offense 
than opinion's sake. 

He boldly claims the right to exercise sum- 
mary authority over the personal liberty of 
every citizen, in defiance of courts and law; 
thus assuming an autocratic power that no 
prince or potentate on any other continent, 
would dare exercise, to render the tenure of 
personal freedom alone dependant on his will. 



276 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



He has also, through a subordinate officer, 
declared martial law on the eve of an impor- 
tant State election, -with no other ostensible 
object than to control the will of the people 
by tke force of bayonets. 

He has sought to intimidate the people in the 
lawful exercise of their political rights, and to 
prevent their counselling together, by masssing 
large bodies of armed troops in line of battle, 
to overawe a reaceful convention of loyal citi- 
zens, convened under the broad regis of the 
constitution, to deliberate on naatters of great 
public concern, and to petition for redress of 
grievances. 

He has, in one of these loy.al states, dispers- 
ed by armed force, a political convention 
called in the usual and time-honored way, to 
nominate officers of state, thus wickedly and 
unlawfully employing the military for partizan 
purposes. 

He has also, by orders and edicts of his sub- 
ordinates, annulled State laws, and prescribed 
new and unusual tests for exercising the elec- 
tive franchise, thus rendering the tenure of of- 
fice dependent on his pleasure. 

He has, by proclamation, established a rotten 
Borough system by which less than 70,000 per- 
sons in nine of the rebel states — and for aught 
that is known, a large portion of these may be 
enfranchised negroes, — may control over one- 
half the entire population of all the states, and 
that 1,400 persons in Florida may have as much 
power in one branch of our government as the 
great state of Now York, with throe millions of 
people. 

He has done numerous and sundry other 
unlawful and despotic things, against the peace, 
the dignity, and the quietude of this sorely op- 
pressed people. 

In every stage of these oppressions and usur- 
pations, the people have remonstrated in the 
most humble terms. Their remonstrances 
have been answered only by repeated wrongs 
and injuries. 

An administration that is thus marked by 
every act that may define tyrants, is unfit to 
manage the affairs of a free people, and should 
be changed, in a peaceful and lawful manner, 
as soon as our charter will permit. 

Nor have the people — the whole people — 
been wanting in duty to the Administration and 
the country. During every stage of oppress- 
ion and insult, they have poured out their blood 
and their substance, free as the air of heaven: 



and notwithstanding nearly three years ol 
war's fiery ordeal, that our adversary hovers 
as near our hearth-stones as ever before, the 
people are yet willing to bleed and be taxed, in 
the hope that the God of Battles will, ere it be 
too late, ordain a change of rulers, when a 
more enlightened policy shall infuse confidence 
and vigor into the war for the maintenance of 
the most liberal system of government on this 
planet. 

S>And for this purpose, and to break up the 
most wicked rebellion that ever reared its 
hydra head against a parent government, we 
pledge each to the other, our lives, our for- 
tunes, and our most sacred honor. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

MORE OF THK ROLE OF DESPOTISM. 

Alii'lition Schemes to Control Elections. ..Army Voting... 
Julius CKsar the Originator of.. .Dr. Lieber on. ..Louis 
Napoleon and Armv Voting. ..Army Vote for. ..General 
Tattle and Tallimdigham...Mr. V. Ahead. ..N. Y. 
World thereon. ..Tricks of the Administration to Saddle 
tlieir Electioneering Expenses on the People. ..Governor 
Salomon of Wisconsin in the role. ..The Army Weakened 
...Soldiers sent home to Vote. ..Proofs in Connecticut... 
Proofs in New York, &c. .. Stanton Boasta of sending more 
Soldiers than Curtin's majority. ..The Contractors per- 
form their part. ..Martial Law in Kentucky to force the 
Election. ..How a "loyal" Paper Views it. ..From Louis- 
ville Journal. ..Statements of Clerk of the Election... 
IIow a Congressman was elected by an "overwhelming 
majority". ..Further evidences. ..The Administration 
carries Maryland by the Bayonet. ..Got. Bradford's Proc- 
lamation on the Subject. ..The Great Frauds Practiced 
on New York by the Enrollment and Quota process... 
Now York Overdr.awn as compared with other States... 
Frauds in the Peuneylrania and Ohio Elections... 
Punishing officers for Voting the Democratic Ticket... 
Case of Capt. Sells. ..Oflficers' Threats to control Elections 
...Bribery at Elections. ..War on the "Copperheads"... 
Republican Organ Justifies Military Interference in 
Elections. ..The Politics of this AVar... Discharging disa- 
bled and dying Soldiers from Office of Sutler for Voting 
the Democratic Ticket... Abolition claim of "Those who 
Vote must Fight". ..Abolition Roorbacks to Effect Elect- 
ions. ..The Union League Machinery. ..Forney on Their 
Purposes. ..Dr. Lieber on Soldiers Voting. ..Geu. Milroy 
on "Home Traitors". ..John Brough's Appeal from the 
Ballot to the Bullet. ..More Threats. ..New York Inde- 
pendent Boa,sts of the Infamy, &c. 

ABOLITION DESPOTISM AND SCHEMES TO 
CONTROL ELECTIONS. 

The facts and documents now before us 
bearing on this point, would surfeit the largest 
folio volume. Our already over-crowded space 
admonishes us to shear down this matter to its 
lowest dimensions — barely giving here and 
there samples of the general whole, without 
particular reference to chronological dates. 

That the Administration while crying ''no 
party," has constantly sought to use the Army 
and every available means — legitimate and il- 
legitimate — within its power, to perpetuate its 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



27T 



reign, no man, not absolutely blinded by parti- 
zan zeal, can deny. 

ARMY VOTING. 

Army voting is not a recent invention. Our 
Xew York World coteieporary gives Louis 
Xapoleon Bonapaete the credit of having 
discovered the art of Army voting, but we 
race the discovery to a more remote date. 
'l'lutraech, in his life of Marcus Crassus, 
lives a striking illustration of the truth that 
listory repeats itself in all ages, and in no 
times more fully than in civil wars. The Ad- 
ministration, in its recent interference in the 
elections, has but followed, not only Louis 
Napoleon, but the tricks and intrigues of Ju- 
lius C-esar. In speaking of the intrigues 
and dissensions that marked the Republic of 
Rome at the time of the Triumvirate of Poji- 
PEY, CiESAR and Crassus, Plutarch says: 

"On Caesar's coming from Gaul to the city 
of Lucca, numbers went to wait upon him, and 
among the rest Crassus and Pompey. These, 
in their private conferences, agreed with him 
to carry matters with a higher hand and to 
make themselves absolute in Rome. For this 
purpose Ctesar was to remain at the head of 
his army, and the other two chiefs to divide 
the rest of the army between them. There 
was no way, however, to carry their scheme 
into execution, without suing for another con- 
sulship, in which Cajsar was to assist by writ- 
ing to his friends, and bij sending a, number of 
his soldiers to vote in the election." 

Louis Napoleon, following in the lead of 
C^sar, set up what he called "universal suf- 
frage," but which Mr. Kinglake called a 
"snare" to "strangle a nation in a night time 
with a plebiscites^ Dr. Lieber, (whom Mr. 
Lincoln has chosen as the author of his army 
code) commenting on the fraud of which Louis 
Napoleon "strangled a nation in a night 
time," submits the following forcible conclu- 
sions: 

"Votes without liberty of the press have no 
meaning; votes without liberty of press and 
with a vast standing army itself possessing the 
right to vote, and considering itself above all 
law, have a sinister meaning; votes without an 
unshackled press, with such an army,and with 
a compact body of officials, whose number with 
those directly depending upon them or upon 
Government contracts, amounts to nearly a 
million, have no meaning whether he who ap- 
peals to the people says that he leaves 'the fate 
of France in the hands of the people' or not." 

Substitute the fate of America for the words 
"the fate of France," and the picture suits our 
mould to a T. 



When Louis Napoleon had got his "snare- 
to strangle a nation in a night tiiuc fairly se;, 
and had got his army well distributed through- 
out France, at every poll, it was an easy mat- 
ter to accomplish the balance of the program- 
me. He then submitted the question to the 
people — soldiers and all — whether they ap- 
proved of his breaking his oath, and of the 
despotism which he proffered in exchange for 
their Republican Constitution. The vote stood 
as follows: 

Tlio number voting Yes 7,438,216 

The number voting No 030,737 

Annulled votes 36,820 

The number not voting 393,590 

No doubt these returns were manipulated by 
faithful officials, but it was an object to show a 
few votes in the negative, so as to make it ayj- 
pear as though the people had voted "freely." 
And when, soon thereafter Napoleon again 
set the snare which he called "universal suf- 
frage," in submitting the question whether he- 
should assume the royal purple, the published' 
returns stood as follows: 

Voting Yes 7, Sil, ISO- 
Voting No 258,115 

A'otes declared void 63,326 

Dr. Lieber, Mr. Lincoln's martial law 
giver, from whom the above figures are taken, 
remarks with commendable sarcasm: 

"This is a state of harmony to which people 
of the Arylican tribe, with all their calmer 
temper, we venture to say, have never yet at- 
tained," 

and yet we have cases of still greater "harmo- 
ny" in our army voting.* 

GEN. TUTTLE and VALLANDIGHAM IN THE 

army. 
We select these two persons as the extremes, 
and give sufficient of the army vote for each to 
indicate the fact, that no matter how "loyal" 
and patriotic a candidate might be, if he did' 
not yoiewith the Administration partizans, he 
stood no more chance than the worst "copper- 
head." Gen. Tuttle, the Democratic candi- 
date for Governor of Iowa, stood upon a plat- 
form that was the neplus ultra of war and loy- 
alty. It was as strong "war to the knife," and 
support of the Administration in the conduct- 
of the war, as any Republican ever could ask. 
No one doubted Gen. T.'s patriotism, for he 
had "won his spurs" in the field, at the head 
of the brave Iowa boys, with whom the Gener- 
al was a popular favorite, while Col. Stone, 
his opponent, was under a cloud, and was 



^78 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



■•neither popular at home or in the army. Such 
was the standing and character of Qen. Tut- 
TLE. Now, let us take a view of Mr. Val- 
landigham's position, as candidate for Gov- 
ernor of Ohio. lie was denounced as the 
"prince of copperheads" — had been seized and 
banished by the Administration, as one too 
disloyal to be among loyal people, and every 
epithet that hate or ingenuity could invent, 
■was heaped upon him. Officers were dismissed 
the service for speaking in his favor — soldiers 
were punished in the guard house for voting 
for him — and yet, after all these disparaging 
circumstances, he polled more votes, as will 
be seen below, in proportion to the number 
cast, than did Gen. Tuttle, not only in the 
army, but also on the home vote: 

OniO AND IOWA VOTE. 

'The following are specimens of each: 

OHIO. 

Brougb, Abolition. 
"115th (Regiment) 371 

100th 475 

114th 460 

118th 480 

.2f.th 190 

62d 272 

67th 2^3 

107th 2.5 

• Hospital, Cairo ^ 

Soldiers in Martinsburg.. 650 .i 



Vallandigham, Dem. 

25 

IS 

4 

189 



.... 41 
.... 29 
.none. 
.... 4 
70 



3231 
LOWA. 
Stone, Abolition, 

, 520 . 

267 . 

93 . 

294 . 

302 . 

.#175 . 

559 . 



087 



Gen. Tuttle, Dom. 
30 



. 280 
.258 
.177 
, 207 



. 42 
.107 



37th.. 
ISth.. 
20th.. 
4th.... 
5th.... 
6th.... 
7th.... 
9th.... 
10th.. 
14th.. 
17th.. 
25th.. 

2l8t 88 

Hospital, Cairo 38 

Soldiers in St. Louis 482 

Second Cavalry 571 

.First Battery 54 

4093 431 

Thus, it will be seen, that Mr. V. has 88 
more votes than hia proj^ or ■(ion, on the number 
above given. 

The New York World thus pertinently re- 
fers to this subject. 

"That the present administration would not 
scruple to interfere with the suffrage of the 
soldiers and use it as an instrument for perpet- 
uating its power, is proved by its unwarantable 
interference with the right of sutFrage in the 
states. An administration that cashiered 
Lieutenant Edgerly, of New Hampshire, for 
distributing Democratic ballots at his own 



home, will tolerate no free'suffrage in the army 
much less the free discussion and untrammel- 
ed political action without which voting is a 
fraudulent mocKery. An administration that 
commissions major-generals, and then, instead 
of assigning them commands, uses them to car- 
ry elections in states of which they are not res- 
idents, will have no scruples in using the offi- 
cers and sutlers ot the army for similar pur- 
poses. Within the lines of the army, where no 
intelligence circulates but by its permission, 
where speaking disrespectfully of Government 
officials is a penal offense, where its control 
over the pay and comfort of the soldier is com- 
plete, and its power of life and death over them 
is nearly absolute, voting ought, under no cir- 
cumstances to be allowed, unless accompanied 
by safeguards against its abuse. 

"How easy it is for the administration to con- 
trol votes in the army without exercising muclit 
seeming constraint is proved by the voting otf 
Wisconsin soldiers, when the administration' 
had no strong motive to exert its influnce. 

THE THICKS AND FRAUDS OF THE ADMINIS- 
TRATION TO SADDLE THEIR ELECTIONEER- 
ING EXPENSES ON THE PEOPLE. 

The following appeared under the telegraphic 

head of 

'•Cairo, III, Oct. 27, '03. 

"A short time before the recent elections a 
superannuated individual made his appearance 
at headquarters with a letter from Gov. Salo- 
man, of Wisconsin, saying that he was travel-; 
ing on the business of the Sanitary Commission, 
and asking for such assistance as the military 
could afford him in the prosecution of his 
philanthropic purposes. While the officers 
were debating among themselves, the propriety 
of giving him transportation at the expense oj 
t lie govern raent . they asked him some questions 
whereupon he acknowledged that he was pro- 
vided with election tickets for the soldiers of 
the different states, and on his way to distribute 
them, as had been arranged previously by par- 
ties at home. No doubt other agents of there- 
publican party, traveling und ,r the guise of 
Sanitary Commission agents and in other ways 
have been sent, at the people's expense, amongBf 
the soldiers to distribute black republicauf 
tickets and documents." 

This speaks for itseif, arid needs no com- 
ment. Et is but a samjile. 

THE ARMY weakened — SOLDIERS SENT irOMB 
TO VOTE. 

We present below a few specimens of that 
political game which has cost the nation much 
of its best blood, and vast treasures, by weak- 
ening our armies at a most critical juncture 
and sending them home to vote the Republican 
ticket. 

The following appeared among the aerws 
items of New York, of October 26, 1863: 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



279 



•'In a period of less than forty-eight hours, 
more than Jive thousand soldiers have arrired in 
this city on their way from the Army of tbe 
Potomac. Not all these, nor a majority of them 
are invalids or furloughed on account of disa- 
bility, but sound, able-bodied men sent home 
to vote the Republican ticket. 

"One party of seventy-five, from different 
companies, were all Republicans but two, and 
these two were obliged, before getting leave to 
come home, to pledge themselves to vote the 
Republican or so-called Union ticket. Most of 
these were sound men, and made no secret of 
the fact that they were sent home to vote. Men 
not willing to pledge themselves thus could not 
obtain a furlough." 

[FroBi the llart.'brd Times.] 
'•The following letter is from a soldier, who 
when in Hartford, always voted the Republi- 
can ticket: 

"Arlington Heights, April 3, 1863. 
"De/ui 'Wife:— I did not go home wiih those who went 
home to vote. I expected to go, but the furloughs were 
given to a picked crowd, that would pledge themselves to 
vote for Buckintiham. I never want to take any such oath 
as this, although I think I should vote fur Buckingham 
mvself if I had been there; but I could not now at any 
rate, for I call this a damnably mean game. If I had 
come, I did'nt mean to let you know of it until I came in 
and took you by surprise; but this game has turned me, 
and all the rest of tbe regiment, too. I think half of the 
regiment would have come out again if this had not oc- 
airred; now, they won't cume at any rate; and I don't 
blame them . You can tell all my Republican friends that 
I am no more a Kepublican if they carry on elections in 
such away as this. 

Here is another which appeared in the Hart- 
ford Times: 



iixoHAM Legion, 20Tn Regiment C. T.'] 
Camp near Stafford Court House, > 

April 3, 1863. j 



Editors Times: — Col. Ross is acting Briga- 
dier General, Col. Wooster is in command of 
the regiment. To-morrow morning about 
twenty-five men leave here for Connecticut. 
All that go are pledged to vote the Republican 
ticket. There are men in the regiment who 
have done no duty during the last three months. 
The doctors say they ought to be dischargeil. 
These cannot go, and the reason is they will 
H.ot pledge themselves to vote for Buckingham. 

The following is from the Cincinnati Com- 
merieal (Rep.): 

"CoLL-MCUs, 0., Oct. 9, 1863. 

"Nearly two thousand soldiers are in the 
city to-night, from Camp Chase, receiving 
transportation to their different counties, to 
enable them to vote on Tuesday next. Thej 
are given ten days furlough, and are jubilant 
over their visit home, shouting lustily for 
Brough and the Union. They are now besieg- 
ing Quartermasters Burn's office, determined 
not to allow the employees to leave until each 
and all have their tickets." 

[Frcmthe Troy Press. J 

THE PrO^CEIPTION OF DEMOCEATS. 

"We have in our possession a letter from a 
friend, a non-commissioned officer in the army 



of the Potomac, whose word was never ques- 
tioned in the neighborhood .vhere he lived, sta- 
ting that he applied for a furlough at the time 
when so many were being allowed to go home 
and visit their friends, and the reply was that 
he could have a furlough on condition that he 
woitld vote the sc-called Union ticket, but as he 
had always been a Democrat, and was so still, 
he could not agree to such terms, and therefore 
icas Compelled to remain on duty while many of 
his companions had gone home. 

"We have also another letter from the army 
of the Potomac, dated October 8th, which is as 
follows: 

"Dear Parent: — It would give mo the greatest pleasure 
to visit you, as s.nne of our boys are taking furloughs for 
twenty days, which is to give them a chance to vote at tho 
election. But there is a condition upon which these fur- 
loughs are given with which I cannot comply. Any one 
of us that will pi edg ■ onr vote for Gov. Curtin can have 
twenty days to visit friends, i'ather, this I cannot do. — 
The boys call us, who refuse, foolish, but we think other- 
wise. They promise to deliver our letters to our friends 
while they visit theirs." 

The shameful act of using one part of 
the army to vote, and the other — not of the ad- 
ministration school of politics — to fight, is again 
and again being presented. The New York 
Journal of Commerce says: 

"Several thousand more soldiers arrived 
from Washington Friday. They were pouring 
through some of the streets from morning to 
night, making their way to the railroad Oe- 
pots and steamboat landings, where they could 
lake passage home to vote. When asked how 
many are on the route, they laugh, and say 
that, 

"It's only begun to sprinkle yet, but a smart shower 
may be looked fur on Saturday, Sanday, and Monday." 

"Within the last two days from 6,000 to 
8,000 reached this city, and it maybe inferred 
from tbe size of the advance guard, how large 
an army will be distributed throughout the 
state by Monday next?" 

A Sergeant in Bates' Battery, on his way 
through Albany boasted he 

"Had brought on sixty -nine soldiers — all 
Republicans — on their way to Utica to vote, 
and had left every d — d Democrat behind to 
take charge of the battery and horses." 

Mr. Stanton boasted that he had elected 
Gov. Ctjrtix, for said he: 

"I sent him 15,000 votes more than his ma- 
jority." 

Says the World: 

"It is pretended that no seldiers ai^e '■brought 
from the front.' The battle of Chickamauga 
was lost in order to carry the Ohio election. 
General Meade was left to be driven into re- 
treat by General Lee in order that the admin- 
istration might carry the Pennsylvania elec- 
tion. In the face of these glaring facts, it is 
no wonder that the Abolition journals try to 
make it appear that nothing is lost to our effec- 



280 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



tive strength in the field by this fresh deple- 
tion of the Army of the Potomac to carry the 
New York election." 

THE COSTRACTOBS PERFORM THEIR PART. 

The following cases in Connecticut, bear 
their own comments, and are but samples of a 
large class: 

"In "Williamantic, some G5 voters having de- 
pendent families, were forced to vote the Re- 
publican ticket against their will. Yellow bal- 
lots were used, and employers stood by the 
ballot box, watching to see if any 'freemen' 
dared to disobey their openly proclaimed or- 
ders! From 60 to 70 workmen, thus watched, 
in that place alone voted abolition against their 
own wishes! One poor old man, not employed 
in any of the mills, and too infirm for work, 
voted a white ticket, for the party with whom 
he had acted for half a century. The malig- 
nant abolition wretches could not discharge 
him because they had not employed him, but 
the old man had a daughter in one of the mills, 
whose daily labor was the support of the fam- 
ily. Iler they wreaked their vengeance upon, 
and discharged her at once! — and not satisfied 
with this, they ordered the old man and his 
family out of the tenement in which they lived! 
A subscription was set on foot by the demo- 
crats to save them from suffering. The names 
of the free speech men who discharged this in- 
offensive girl, are Ilayden — managers of the 
'Smithville Co. Mill.' 

"The same infamous proceedings changed 
some 600 votes in other towns in Windham 
county, and nearly as many each in New Lon- 
don and ToUard counties. Colored ballots to 
'spot' workmen — open proclamation of pro- 
scription as the consequence if they dared to 
vote as their conscience dictated — this, with 
wholesale bribery and the votes of 3,000 picked' 
and selected soldiers, sent home on a promise 
to vote abolition, was the way in which the dis- 
union party worked in every county in the 
State. 

"In Colt's Pistol Factory this same tyranny 
made at least 100 of the democratic workmen 
vote the abolition ticket. 

"In Plymouth, a man having refused the ab- 
olition command to vote that ticket, his family 
in his absence, were turned out of the house, 
the furniture and bedding thrown out, and a 
family of negroes put in the house! Legal 
action will be taken in this case. 

"In many towns the abolitionists, aided and 
encouraged by the 'Loyal Women's League,' 
have stopped all dealings with Democrats, and 
pass their former friends and neighbors with- 
out recognizing them in the street. Such are 
the legitimate results of fanaticism. 

"A^day is coming when these persons will 
regret this shameful conduct." 

MAKTIAL LAW IN KENTUCKY— ORDER "NO. 120." 

The following is Buenside's order sus- 
pending civil law in reference to elections. 



just four days prior to the election in that 
State: 

llEAIXirARTERB DEPARTMENT OP THE OHIO, ) 

CiNciN.VAii, Ohio, July 31, 1863. / 
Order No. 120. 

Whereas, The state of Kentucky is invaded 
by a rebel force, with the avowed intention of 
overawing the judges of elections, of intimi- 
dating the loyal voters, keeping them from the 
polls, and forcing the election of disloyal can- 
didates at the election on the 3d of August; 
and 

Whereas, The military power of the govern- 
ment is the only force that can defeat this at- 
tempt, the state of Kentucky is hereby de- 
clared under martial law, and all military offi- 
cers are commanded to aid the constituted au- 
thorities of the state in support of the laws and 
of the purity of suffrage, as defined in the late 
proclamation of his Excellency, Governor Rob- 
inson. 

As it is not the intention of the Command- 
ing General to interfere with the proper ex- 
pression of public opinion, all discretion in 
the conduct of the election will be as usual in 
the hands of legally appointed judges at the 
polls, who will be held strictly responsible that 
no disloyal person Ic alloiced to vote, and to 
this end the military power is ordered to give 
them its utmost support. 

The civil authority, civil courts, and busi- 
ness will not be suspended by this order. It 
IS for the purpose only of protecting, if neces- 
sary, the rights of loyal citizens, and the free- 
dom of election. 

By command of Major Gen. Burnside. 

LEWIS RICHMOND, A. A. G. 

No subsequent fact demonstrated that any 
such combination as is here referred to existed 
in the state, or that there was any cause to 
suppose that such was the case. Of course, an 
election under such an "edict" was a farce, 
which the voluminous documents before us 
amply prove. We have only room for the fol- 
lowing. 

The following appeared in the War Eagle at 
Columbus, Kentucky, three days before the 
election. This sheet was published under 
military control. 

"We now warn the people to beware of these 
traitors, for if they, in defiance to the will of 
Government, go to the polls and vote for Trim- 
ble, or any other man who has not publicly 
avowed himself as an unconditional Union 
man, they will hereafter be treated as enemies, 
and as men deserving on their guilty heads all 
the punishment whict the Government has in 
reserve for traitors. 

"Other persons of lesser magnitude have 
announced themselves as candidates for the 
State Senate, and for Representatives in the 
State Legislature, who are occupying the same 
position that Wickliflfe and Trimble occupy. 
The people are warned not to vote for such 
men, as they are enemies, and are running in' 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



2Er 



direct violation of Special Order N®. 159, is- 
sued from Headquarters, 16th Army Corps, 
and General Order No. 47, issued by Gen. As 
both, commanding the District of Columbus. 
We tell the people of the District that their 
only safety and protection depends on voting 
the itraiffht-out Union ticket. The issue is in 
your hands, and on your conduct next Monday 
depends your future peace and protection. 
When you vote for traitors, you can of course 
expect no protection from the Federal Govern- 
ment." 

[From the Louisville Journal.] 

■'He who would make use of force to prevent 
freedom of election is a traitor to all the prin- 
ciples of civil liberty. To accomplish a tem- 
porary object, he would invoke a power which 
will destroy not only the liberties of his fellow- 
citizens, but eventually his own. The horse in 
the fable, to wreak his vengeance on the stag, 
permitted the man to saddle him, and was rid- 
den ever after, till the day of his death. We 
consider ourselves superior to our English an- 
cestors six hundred years ago; but many men 
in this age may learn a lesson from the times 
of Edward the First. "And because elections 
ought to be free," says a statute of that time, 
■'the king commandeth, upon great forfeiture, 
that no man, by force of army, nor by malice, 
or menacing, shall disturb any to make free 
elections.'' 

A FEW ACTUAL SPECIMENS. 

The following is a statement of the polls in 
Mount Washington, at 9 o'clok a. m.: 

"WickliflFe 21, Bramlette 3, Green 21, Sam- 
uels 3, Frazier 21, Dawson 3. 

"Voting on the WickliflFe ticket was stopped 
by military order at 9 o'clock in the morning. 
The polls opened at about 8 o'clock in the 
morning. ROB'T. HALL, Clerk," 

The following is a true statement of the polls 
in Mount Washington at the close for dinner, 
at 111^ o'clock: 

"Bramlette, 15; Jacobs, 17; Harlan, 15; 
Garrard, 16; Samuels, 15; Stephens, 15; Har- 
ding, 17; Thompson, 24; Hogland 12. 

"P. S. — There were four or five of the above 
votes cast before the interferance of military 
authority. R. HALL, Clerk." 

The New Albany (Ind.) Ledger in its report 
printed on the afternoon of election day, said: 

"Numerous arrests of persons pointed out by 
the "spotters" at the polls as rebels have been 
made, the parties arrested being placed in the 
military prison. Files of soldiers are station- 
ed at all the polls, and we saw several pieces 
of artillery, with horses hitched and the men 
at the guns, ready for action at a moments 
notice. 

"In Portland, at 13 o'clock, the vote stood: 
Bramlette, 30; Wickliffe, 2. The two votes for 
WicklifFe at this poll were cast before the sol- 
diers arrived. 

"The Wickliffe men arc overawed, and it is 
probable but few of them will attempt to vote 
this afternoon." 

19 



now A CONGRESSMAN WAS "ELECTED BY AN 
OVERWHELMING MAJORITY." 

"PaAucab, Ky., Aug. 16, 1S6.3. 
"To the Editor of the Chicago Times: 

"In your paper of the 13th inst. you gave to 
your readers the oath which the detestable 
tools of the administration ai Washington were 
wont to cram down the throats of the demO' 
crats of Kentucky. Herewith I give yon 
another item that will be of interest to the 
mighty army of democrats in the free States 
who read your excellent paper. 

"It is now announced, with all Puritan in- 
nocence and godlike simplicity, that L. Ander- 
son, Esq., of the 1st Congressional district, is 
'elected by an overwhelming majority." Now, 
let me show you how this 'overwhelming mf;J 
jority' was attained. At our Precint, No. 3 
we did not vote at all. Why? Let the follow- 
ing answer: 

"Precinct, No. 3, Aug. £, 1863. 
"Be it kuown that we, the undersigned voters of 
McCracken county, Ky., did, on this day, appear at our 
Precinct No. 3 to vote, in accordance with the laws of the 
Commonwealth, and the proclamation of the Governor 
thereof, dated July 20, 1S63, but that we have been pre- 
vented from so voting by reason of the fact that the Judges 
could not execute the duties of their office in accordance 
with the laws of the State, and at the same time obey th<j 
military orders respecting the manner in which our elect - 
Ions shall be conducted; and, to said military orders, a 
squad of armed soldiers are here present, to deter the 
Judges from doing their duty. Therefere, we, the under- 
signed, voters of McCracken county, declare it to have 
been our purpose and intention to vote at this time and 
place the rfe?nocra<!c ticket headed by Wickliffe for Gov- 
ernor, &c., Ac, and that we have been prevented from so 
doing for the reasons hereinbefore stated. 

"(Signed by 35 voters)." 

Extract from a letter dated: 

Bloomfield, Ky., Aug. 4, 1863. 
"Bloomfield is a small town, twelve miles 
from Bardstown, in the midst of a fine coun- 
try, where Democrats abound. On Monday 
morning (election day), Capt. Sea, fermerly of 
Chicago, but now an Indiana Captain of cav- 
alry — an Abolitionist who voted for Lincoln 
avowed himself in favor of the emancipation 
and negro-arming policy of the President, and 
defines 'loyalty' to be a support of all the 
President's measures — with a squad of twenty- 
five soldiers, armed with carbines, sabres, and 
revolvers, took possession of the polls. He in- 
formed the judges that they were under mar- 
tial law, and would have to conduct the elec- 
tion according to his directions, which he had 
received from his superiors. He then declared 
Hon. C. A. Wicklife a disloyal man, and that 
no vote should be cast for him. He furnished 
State, Congressional, and county tickets, which 
he deelared to be 'loyal,' and said that 'loyal 
men' might vote for them. At a later period 
he stated that votes of 'loyal men' might be 
cast for other candidates, provided the judges 
would indorse the loyalty of the candidates, ad- 
monishing them, at the same time, that they 
would be held responsible for all men voted for; 
and that if any of them should hereafter be 
declared 'disloyal' by the military authorities, 
the judges xvould be punished; but what the 
punishment might be he was not authorized to 
say. The judges, overawed by the military, 



^m 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



being :.uquainted with only a few of the long 
list of caadidates, and warned of exposure to 
an unde^Tied military punishment if by chance 
a disloyal man should be voted for, concluded to 
receive votes only for the miliiary ticket, of 
which Bramlette, far Governor, was the head. 
A few Democrats offered to vote for Mr. Wick- 
liffe, but were met with the assurance of the 
Indiana, Abolition, negro-arming Captain, 
with his revolver conspicuously displayed, 
that 

■"Mr. Wickliffe is a disloyal man, and that in no case 
shall a vote be cast for Lim." 

"The Democrats then gave up the contest 
and resigned the polls to the military and the 
■'■ ''loyalty." About nine-tentbs of this precinct 
is democratic, and would have so appeared on 
the poll-books, if we had been allowed to vote: 
but the military decreed onterwise, and like 
our beloved brethern, the northern democrats, 
•when they get in a tight place, "we are a law 
and order iieopie." '"But for our forbearance, 
blood would have been shed," as our northern 
brethern say when they allow the adolitionists 
to "spit upon them and rub it in." That is to 
say, we quietly submitted to have our rights 
wrested from us, and the soldiers had no oc- 
casion to "shed the blood" of so docile a peo 
pie. 

"The whole number of votes cast was nine- 
teen — all for the Bramlette ticket. If the dem- 
ocrats had been allowed to vote Mr. Wickliffe's 
majority would perhaps have been 120 or more 
The eutire "bogus Union" strength was poll- 
ed, except, perhaps two votes. 

"Old men who have been voting for forty and 
fifty years were yesterday refused the privilege 
of voting, while mere youths, just out of their 
minority, freely voted. An aged minister of 
the Gospel, who has been a legal voter, but 
not a politician, for fifty -neven years, was denied 
a vote; while a young man, without sufficient 
intelligence to read his ticket, and known to 
be a thief, voted Bramlette & Co. Men of large 
wealth and high character, who pay heavy taxes 
to State and national governments, could not 
vote, while "squatters" and "sponges" freely 
voted, who will probably never pay a dime to 
support the national government, and nothing 
more than head tax to the state government. 

"Thus did 'the military officer aid the con- 
stituted authorities in support of the laws and 
of the purity of suffrage,' under Gen. Burn- 
side's order proclaiming martial law. Thus 
did the commander of Indiana troops in Nel- 
son county fulfil his promise, made in flaming 
capitals, that the people shall 'not be mo- 
lested IN ANY WAY, and shail be protected 
in their sovereign rights.' 

"At Bardstown and other parts of the coun- 
ty the same scene was enacted. The same 
was done in several other counties heard from. 
And yet the Louisville Journal and other ab- 
olition' papers will claim a brilliant victory 
achieved. 

"At Chaplain, in this county, the judges, 
supported by a few citizens, 'overawed' a di- 
minutive specimen of a Captain and his squad 



of men, and voted for Wickliffe, Bramlette se- 
curing only 'six' votes, and Wickliffe more 
than one hundred. A KENTUCKIAN." 

We ask not to be excused for publishing 
the following entire. It bears its own com- 
ment: 

GOV. BKADFORO VS. GEN. SCHENCK — THE 
GUBERNATOKIAL PROCLAMATION. 

"State of Maryland, Executive Department, ) 
"Anapolis.Nov. 2, 1863. ) 

'■^ Proclamation ly the Governor. 

"To the Citizens of the State, and more especially the 
Judges of Election: 

"A militai'y order issued from the headquar- 
ters of the 'Middle Department,' bearing date 
the 27th ult., printed and circulated, it is said 
through the State, though never yet published 
here, and designed to operate on the approach- 
ing election, has just been brought to my at- 
tention, and is of such a character, and issued 
under such circumstances, as to demand notice 
at my hands. 

'This order, reciting 

"That there are many evil disposed persons now at large 
in the St^te of Maryland who have been engaged in re- 
bellion against the lawful government, or have given aid 
and comfort, or encouragement to others so engaged, or 
who do not recognize their allegiance to the United States, 
and who may avail themselves of the indulgence of the 
authority which tolerates their presence to embarrass tha 
approaching election, or through it to foist enemies of the 
United States into power," 

proceeds among other things to direct 
"all Provost Marshals and other military officers to arrest 
all such persons found a^ or hanging about or approach- 
ing any poll or place of election, on the 4th of November, 
V6&i, and to report such arrests to headquarters." 

"This extraordinary order has not only been 
issued without any notice to, or consultation 
with, the constituted authorities of the State, 
but at a time and under circumstances when 
the condition of the State and the charaliter of 
the candidates are such as to preclude the idea 
that the result of that election can in any way 
endanger either the safety of the government 
or the peace of the community. 

"It is a well-known fact that, with perhaps 
one single exception, there is not a Congres- 
sional candidate in the state whose loyalty is 
even of a questionable character, and in not a 
county of the state outside of the same Con- 
gressional district is there, I believe, a candi- 
date for the Legislature or any State office 
whose loyalty is not equally undoubted. In 
the face of this well-known condition of things, 
the several classes of persons above enumerat- 
ed are not only to he arrested a^, but '■'•approach- 
ing any poll or place of election. ^^ And who 
is to judge whether voters thus on their way to 
the place of voting have given "aid, comfort or 
encouragement^^ to persons engaged in the re- 
bellion, or that they ''do not recognize their 
allegiance to the United States," and may avail 
themselves of their presence at the polls "to 
foist enemies of the United States into power?" 
As I have already said, in a very large major- 
ity of the counties of the States there are not 
to be found among the candidates any such 



SCRAPS FROM i\JY SCRAP-BOOK. 



288 



"enemies ©f the United States," but the Pro- 
vost Marshals — created for a very dififerent 
purpose — and the other military officials who 
are thus ordered to arrest approaching voters, 
are necessarily made by the order the sole and 
exclusive judges of who fall within the prescrib- 
ed category; an extent of arbitrary discretion 
under any circumstances the most odious, and 
more especially offensive and dangerous in 
view of the known fact, that two at least of 
the five Provost Marshals of the State are 
themselves candidates for imi)ortant offices, and 
sundry of their deputies for others. 

''This military order, therefore, is not only 
without justification when looking to the char- 
acter of the candidates before the people, and 
rendered still more obnoxious by the means ap- 
pointed for its execution, but is equally offen- 
sive to the sensibilities of the people them- 
selves and ihe authorities of the state, looking 
to the repeated proofs they have furnished of 
an unalterable devotion to the government. 
For more than two years past there has never 
been a time when, if every traitor and every 
treasonable sympathizer in the state had voted 
they could not have controlled, whoever might 
have been their candidates, a single depart- 
ment of the state, or jeopardized the success 
of the general government. No state in the 
Union has been or is now actuated by more 
lioartfelt or unwavering loyalty than Maryland 
— a loyalty identified and purified by the ordeal 
through which it has passed; and yet looking 
to what has lately transpired elsewhere, and to 
the terms and character of this military order, 
one would think that in Maryland and no 
where else is the government endangered by 
the 'many evil disposed persons that are now 
at large.' 

"Within less than a month the most impor- 
tant elections have taken place in two of the 
largest states of the Union; in each of them 
candidates were before the people charged by 
the particular friends of the government with 
being hostile to its interests, and whese elec- 
tion was deprecated as fraught with the most 
dangerous consequences to its success. One 
of the most prominent of these candidates was 
considered so dangerously inimical to the tri- 
umph of the national cause that he has been 
for months past banished from the country, and 
yet hundreds of thousands of voters were al- 
lowed to approach the polls, and to attempt 
"to foist" such men into power, and no Pro- 
vost Marshals or other military officers were 
ordered to arrest them on the way, or. so far 
as we have ever heard, even to test their alle- 
giance by any oath. ■ 

"With these facts before us, it is difficult to 
believe that the suggestion that the enemies of 
the United States may be foisted into power at 
our coming election was the consiilcration that 
prompted this order; but whatever may have 
been that motive, I feel it to be my duty to sol- 
emnly protest against such an intervention 
with the privileges of the ballot-box, and so 
offensive a discrimination against the rights of 
a loyal state. I 

"I avail myself of the occasion to call to the I 



particular attention of the judges of election 
the fact that they are on the day of election 
clothed with all the authority of conservators 
of the peace, and may summon to their aid any 
of the executive officers of the county, and the 
whole power of the county itself, to preserve 
order at the polls and secure the constitution- 
al rights of the voters. 

"It is also made their 'special duty' to give 
information to the State's Attorney for the 
county of all infractions of the State laws on 
the subject of elections, and by these laws it is 
forbidden to any 

"coiriraissioned or non-commissioned officers quartered or 
posted in any district of any county of the state, to mus- 
ter or employ any of said troops or march any recruiting 
party within the view of any place of election during the 
time of holding said election." 

"I need not, I am sure, remind them of the 
terms of the oath they are required to take be- 
fore entering upon their duties, and according 
to which they swear 

"to permit all persons to vote who shall offer to poll at the 
election, etc., who, in their judgment, shall, according to 
the directions contained in the constitution and laws, be 
entitled to poll at the same election, and not to permit any 
person to poll at the same election who is not in (their) 
judgment qualified to vote as aforesaid." 

"It is the judgment of judges of election 
alone, founded upon the provisions of the con 
stitution and laws of the state, that must de- 
termine the right to vote of any person offering 
himself for that purpose. I trust and believe 
they will form that judgment, and discharge 
their duty, as their conscientious convictions 
of its requirements, under the solemn obliga- 
tions they assume shall dictate, undeterred by 
any order to Provost Marshals to report them 
to 'headquarters.' 

"Whatever power the state possesses shall 
be exerted to protect them for anything done 
in the proper execution of its laws. 

"Since writing the above I have seen a copy 
of the President's letter to the chairman of 
the Union State Central Committee, bearing 
the same date with the order, and evidently 
showing that the order was unknown to him, 
that it would not have been approved by him 
if he had known it, and that it is therefore all 
the more reprehensible- 

"By the Governor. A. W. BRADFORD. 
"W.M. B. Hill, Sec'y of State." 

"After the above was in print, at 3 o'clock 
tnis afternoon, I received from the President 
the following dispatch: 

'■I revoke the first of the three propositions in General 
Schenck's General Order No. 53, not that it is ivrnng in 
pfi)>"iple l>\it because the military, being of necessity ex- 
■ II - ■ judges as to who shall be arresteil, the provision is 
• a6«se; for the revoked part I shall substitute the 
t . .• ,ifi: 

il.itail Provsot Marshals and other military ofiicera do 
prevent ail disturbances and violences at or about the 
pr lis, whenever offered by such persons as above des- 
c;ili('.l, or by any other person or persons whomsoever; the 
oihi 1 two propositions I allow to stand; my letter at 
lenjjtli will reach you to night. 

"A. LI.NTOLN." 

"Whilst this modification revokes the author- 
ity of the Provost Marshals and military offi- 
cers to arrest the classes of persons enumerated 
in the preamble to the order 



284 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



"Found at or hanging about or approaching any poll or 
placed election," 

It directs them to prevent all violence or dis- 
turbance about the polls, &c. 

"To meet such disturbances, the judges of 
election, as I have already stated, are clothed 
■with ample power, and I had received no pre- 
vious intimation that there was any reason to 
apprehend a disturbance of any kind at the 
polls on the day of election. In the absence of 
any military display, there would certainly 
, seem to be a little cause for such apprehen- 
sions as ever before existed. A preparation by 
the government, by military means to provide 
for such a contingency, will be quite as likely 
to provoke as to subdue such a disposition. — 
Not only so, but the military thus required to 
prevent violence or disturbances about the polls 
must necessarily be empowered to arrest the 
parties they may charge with such disorder, and 
they are still left, in eflfect, "the exclusive 
judges as to who shall be arrested" — a power 
they may as readily abuse as any other. 

"I regret, therefore, that I can perceive no 
such change in the general principles of the 
order as to induce me to change the aforegoing 
proclamation. A. W. BRADFORD. 

"Baltimore, Monday evening, Nov. 2, 1863." 

Be it remembered, that the tyrant, Schenck 
forbid the newspapers to publish this procla- 
mation, and Gov. Brvdfokd was forced to 
print it in handbill form, and then the "milita- 
ry authorities" suppressed it. Is not this a 
" refinement on despotism," when a loyal Gov- 
ernor of a loyal state is denied the privilege of 
proclaiming to the official agents of his state, 
their sworn duties under the laws thereof, and 
those laws are trampled under foot by military 
candidates for civil offices? And yet, the Pres- 
ident had the magnanimity to modify General 
Schenck's order — not because he thought it 
wrong — but to make it just as despotic — and 
that modification was suppressed, and the of- 
ficers who did it were not even censured. Un- 
der the infliction of such villainous despotism, 
we confess our faith in Jree government is very 
much shattered. 

In Delaware, the Democrats finding their 
rights usurped by military authority — the laws 
under which they lived, trampled under foot, 
came out in an address, (which we have before 
us, but must omit) declining to go through with 
the farce of voting by bayonet, and thus their 
rights went by default. 

THE CONSCRIPTION — ITS UNFAIRNESS — IS 
" NOT THIS A POLITICAL WAR? 

In New York, and we presume elsewhere, 
the draft is being used as a political machine 
— to draft more Democrats than Republicans. 
This is shown upon the face of things, and 
when we consider the fact that the names of 
Democrats have been known to be placed in 
duplicates, and in some instances in triplicates, 



while many leading Republicans are left out 
altogether — when we consider these facts, it is 
by no means unfair to suppose that the aboli- 
tionists intend to so arrange the draft as to 
draw at least two Democrats for one Republi- 
can. "To prove which, let facts be submitted 
to a candid world." 

The following table exhibits the blistering 
facts concerning twelve congressional districts 
of the State of New York — six Democratic and 
six Republican. The figures are based on the 
last gubernatorial vote of 186'2: 





What consti- 




a IT 1 






_c 


tutes district. 


■2 a 


33.2 


c 


Canvass '62. 


■3_2 


i5 


Counties. 


1-2 


Ph 


1:5 




Wads 1 Sey'r 




29 


Genessee 

Niagara 


32,189 
50,399 














Wyoming 


31,968 


114,556 


1,767 


U,198 


8,984 


20,182 


17 


St. Lawrence. 


S3, 689 














Franklin 


30,837 


114,526 


1,83 J 


12,023 


5,879 


17,902 


23 


Onandaga 


90,686 














Cortland 


26,294 


116,980 


2,ose 


12,809 


9,646 


22,454 


2& 


Monroe 


100648 














Orleans 


28,717 


129,365 


2,01!: 


11,470 


9,536 


21,000 


15 


Renssellaer ... 


S6,328 












Washington... 


45,904 


232,331 


2,26C 


ll,96€ 


11,149 


23,115 


27 


Chemung 

Steuben 


26,917 
66,690 














.Alleghany 


41,881 


135,488 


2.41t 


15,405 


10,447 


25,852 


30 


Erie 


141971 


141,971 


2,53t 


9,642 


11,783 


21,425 




Odell's Dist., 






King's Co. 
















Brooklyn. 
















Wards. 














3 


First 


6,967 
9,817 
10,084 
11,760 
17,400 
12,090 














Second 






Third 






Fourth 






Fifth 






.Seventh 






Eleventh 


28,851 














Thirteenth 


17,958 














Fifteenth 


10,566 














Nineteenth.... 


6,697 


132,242 


2,697 


7,506 


8,915 


16,421 




Kalbfleische 'i 
















dis, Kings Co. 
















Wards. 














2 


Sixth 


27,710 
9,190 














Eighth 






.\inth 


17,343 














Tenth 


25,258 
11,083 
15,475 














Twelfth 






Fourteenth.... 






Sixteenth 


21,181 














•eventeentb .. 


7,934 














Eighteenth ... 


4,3le 


151,951 


4,140 


5,381 


10,580 


15, %7 




Tovms. 
















Flat bush 


3,471 














Flatlands 


1,652 














Uravesend 


1 , 286 














New Lolts 


3,271 














.\ew Utrecht. 


2,781 














Wards of 














G 


CityofX.'Y. 
Sinth 


44,386 
27,587 














Fifteenth 






Si.xteeuth 


45,17C 


117,148 


4,531 


5,935 


6,94212,877 


8 


Eighteenth .... 


57,46U 
67,510 












Twentieth 












Twenty -first.. 


19,017 


175,988 


4,892 


5,570 


9,625 15,195 


4 


pirst 


18,14i' 
2, .501 
3,757 
21,994 
22,337 
26,696 














Second 






Third 






Fourth 






Fifth 






Sixth 






Eighth 


39,406 


131,854 


5,88] 


4,536 


7,826 


12,363 


__ 







SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOR 



285. 



It will be seen that in the sis Democratic 
districts, -with a total vote of 94;248, and a 
Democratic aggregate majority of 17,108, the 
draft calls for 24,688, while in the six Re- 
publican districts the total vote is 130,414 — or 
36,266 more votes than in the six Democratic dis- 
tricts, and the Republican majority is 19,228, 
the draft only calls for 12,387— or within a 
fraction of just one half the number to be 
drawn from the six Democratic districts, con- 
taining nearly 40,000 less voters. 

If this is not a clear case of political fraud, 
then there is no such thing as fraud. 

Again, it will be seen that New York, which 
is "intensely Copperhead." according to the 
chaste diction of the Abolitionists had furnish- 
ed an excess over all calls of 22f761, exclu- 
sive of the militia, which have at different 
times been furnished for short periods, while 
many of the intensely Republican districts were 
short, by large odds. Still, the Administration 
insisted on drawing from ''Copperhead"' New 
York city 12,580 more. 

The following table shows what New York 
had done under the four calls: 



Quota of State Fur- 
Call for State. uished. 
75,000 13,2S0 30,000 
500,000 100,000 S9,755 
.300,000 60,000 87,507 
300,000 60,000 2,734 



Quota of Citv Fnr- 

Cit}'. uished. 

2,78-t 14,4.33 

20,960 42,934 

12,580 13,468 

12,580 830 



1,175,000 233,280 



210,127 



4S,910 



71,671 



And yet the disloyal Abolitionists cry give 
us more. On this subject the New York World. 
from which we obtained the above figures, re- 
marks: 

"The citizens of New York protest against 
the inequality and injustice of this distribution 
of a very onerous burden, which must be ac- 
companied by so many cases of individual hard- 
ships. They protest against this attempt to 
use the military power of the government as a 
party engine to get rid of political opponents 
who cannot be voted down. AVe maintain that 
when the government resorts to a method of 
raising troops which is, to say the least, of 
doubtful constitutionality, it ought to give evi- 
dence of pure and honest intentions, and an 
eye single to the public advantage. 

The National Intelligencer, one of the most 
candid papers in the Union, and which was 
never charged with being a Democratic paper, 
in commenting on these facts, says: 

"In order that every reader may see for 
himself the bases of the calculations from 
which we educe the conclusion that the quota 
assigned to New York is excessive, we cite 
the fii^ures, giving the representative popula- 
tion and the aggregate population of the fol- 



Reps. 


Quota. 


10 


15,126 


5 


7,581 


3 


3,768 


3 


3,331 


4 


5,432 


'2 


2,034 


31 


60,378 


5 


9,441 


1 


1,156 


24 


38,263 


19 


32,000 


11 


16,000 


6 


8,910 



lowing states, together with the quota assigned 
to each. It is needless to say that if the quo- 
tas have been correctly distributed among the 
several states, they ought to bear something 
like a uniform ratio to the population of the 
states. Instead of this, we find by the rule of 
proportion that the ratio of New York is largely 
in excess over that of other states. 

States. Population. 

Massachusetts 1,231,066 

Maine 628,279 

New Uampshire 326,073 

Vermont 315,098 

Connecticut 460,147 

Rhode Island 174,620 

New York 3,880,735 

New Jersey 672,035 

Delaware 112,216 

Pennsylvania 2,906,115 

Ohio 2,349,502 

Indiana 1,. 3.50, 428 

Iowa 674,948 

"The excess required of New York, estima- 
tins it upon the representation in Congress, is 
as follows: 

As compared with Massachusetts 13,488 

As compared with Maine 13,376 

As compared with New Hampshire 21,442 

As compared with Vermont 25,958 

As compartd with Connecticut 18,280 

As conipared«with Rhode I.slaud 28,581 

As compared with New Jersey i 1,844 

As compared with Delaware 26,650 

As compared with Pennsylvania 10,948 

As compared with Ohio 8,168 

As compared with Indiana 15,288 

As compared with Iowa 14,343 

"The excess required of New York, estima- 
ting it upoa the population, is about as follows: 

As compared with Massachusetts 12,538 

As compared with Maine 13,548 

As compared with New Hampshire 15,524 

As compared with Vermont 19,342 

As compased with Connecticut 14,562 

As compared with Riode Island 15,170 

As compared with New Jersey 5,8.58 

As compared with Pennsylvania 9,276 

As compared with Delaware 20,396i 

As compared with Ohio 7,298 

As compared with Indiana 14,399 

As compared with Iowa 9,146 

PALPABLE FRAUDS. 

Since 1860 Pennsylvania has sent to the war 
164,257 men— not less than 135,000 were 
voters. 

The total vote at the election of 1863 523,669 

Total vote in 1860, 476,446 

K.\ces3 over 1860, home vote 47,223 

Now, as the excitement was intense in 1860, 
it is presumable that the full vote was out.— 
Let us compare three Presidential decades in 
that state. 

In 18.52 the total vote was, 386,267 

In 1856, total vote, 461,246 



Increase in fouryears, 74,979 

Total vote in 1860, 476,446 

Increase in four years 15,200 

Total vote 186.3 523,669 

Add for voters gone to the army, 135,000 

658,669 
Increase in ttree years, 182,223 



286 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



Now let us take Ohio for three Presidential 
decades: 

Total vote of 1852, 353,428 

Total vote of 1856, 386,497 



Increase in four years 33,069 

Total vote in 1860, 442,441 



Increase in fouryears, 56,944 

[This was an unprecedented exciting can- 
vass which brought out a. full vote.] 

Total home vote in 1863, 435,786 

Add for voters gone to the war, 120,000 



555,786 
Increase in three years, 113}339 

The same ratio of increase is exhibited in 
Maine. 

NoWj it is impossible to reconcile these blis- 
tering facts with honesty and fairness. 

Does any sanC; fair-minded man believe that 
Pennsylvania has increased her voting popula- 
tion within the three years last past, 182,223? 
when her increase from 1852 to 1856 was but 
74,979, when emigration was going on swim- 
mingly, and from 1856 to 1860 her voting pop- 
ulation increased but 15,200, owing to a falling 
off in emigration, yet within the last three 
years when emigration had almost entirely 
ceased, she is represented by the vote forced 
by shoddy and bayonets, to have increased 
her Voting population over 182,000! This is 
monstroua. The vote in Ohio was equally 
monstrous. From 1852 to 1856 her voting popu- 
lation increased but 33,069, and from 1856 to 
1860, which epoch called out the fullest vote 
cast in America, the increase was but 56,944, 
yet for the last three years, with no aid from 
emigration, the vote which she is represented 
to have cast, shows an increase of 113,339! — 
The Democratic vote in Pennsylvania at the 
recent election, was — 

Over that of 1852, 56,3.33 

Over that of 1856, 24,117 

Over combined vote of 1860, 59,253 

The Democratic vote of Ohio at the election 

in 1863: 

Exceeds that of 1852, 19,3.50 

Over that of 1856, 17,696 

Over that of 1860, 1,348 

While the Republican Abolition vote of 1863, 
(adding the soldiers they claim in the field. ) 
exceeds that of 1860 by 195,606! 
Further comment is unnecessary. 

PUNISHING OFFICERS FOR VOTING THE DEMO- 
CRATIIC TICKET. 

An article before us states that more than 
one half the Ohio soldiers refused to vote in 



October, 1863, and the following may and no 
doubt does, show a good reason for their reti- 
cence. 

Capt. Benj. F. Sells, of the 122d OhioV., 
Company D, was arrested on the 1st of Octo- 
ber, on the 

''Charge — Conduct prejudicial to good or- 
der and military discipline." 

And from the specifications we take the fol- 
lowing: 

"Specification 4th. In this, that he, the 
said Captain B. F. Sells, 'D' Company, 122d 
0. V. I., in the service of the U. S.; did utter 
and use the following language, to-wit: I am 
going to vote for Vallandigham, and so are all 
my company, except a few, or words to that ef- 
fect. This at or near Martinsburg, Va., on or 
about the 13th day of August, 1863. 

"Specification 8th. In this, that he. the 
said Capt. B. F. Sells, 'D' Company, i22d 
Regt, G. V. I., in the service of the U. S., did 
ply officers and men with arguments in favor 
of voting for Vallandigham, and did use the 
following language, to. wit: Vallandigham is a 
loyal man, and I will vote for him, or words to 
that efifejt. 

"This at or near Martinsburg, Va., on or 
about the 14th day of August, 1862. 

(Signed) OKLAXDOC. FARQUAR, 

Capt. Co. G, 122d Kegt. 0. V. I. 

THREATS FROM SHOULDER STRAPS TO CON- 
TROL THE ELECTIONS. 

The future historian will be thunderstruck at 
reading such threatening diatribes of which the 
following is but a sample of a large class, 
stimulated as we have remarked elsewhere, no 
doubt, by the harangues of Adjutant Thomas. 

The following, purporting to have been writ- 
ten to R. B. Charles, by one of the Wisconsin 
soldiers on the Potomac, appeared with gran- 
diloquent headings and preface in the Fond du 
Lac (Wis.) Commomvealih, of April 29, 1863 : 

" * * We will attend to the rebels, if 
" you will take care of the Copperheads at 
" home. When we get home, if moral suasion 
" has not taught them better manners we will 
" treat them to a dish of our own preparing ; 
" for we consider them the worst of traitors. 
" There are honorable traitors over the river 
" (the Rappahannock), but those in the north 
" are the most damnable of the devil's imps. 
" We are not lying on the ground for nothing, 
" tell them. Our business is to exterminate 
" traitors ; we shall not consider it finished so 
" long as there is a copperhead in the north. 
" Our epithets may be harsh, but they are just 
" such as a damnable set of traitors bring up- 
" on themselves, from every honest tongue, 
" whether from soldier or citizen. They have 
" belied us by stating that the army of the 
" Potomac was 'demoralized,' &c., but we will 
" not belie them, although truth sounds harsh." 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK 



-87 



The following is an extract of a letter over 
the signature of J. W. McKay, of the 25th 
Wisconsin Infantry, and published in the Re- 
publican papers with approving comments, ap- 
peared about the same time as the above : 

"We warn Northern "Copperheads" to keep 
hands off; ruin to their friendship is better 
than ruin to our country, and if they force us 
to deal with them as enemies, we shall do our 
work for all coming time." 

Enough! The heart sickens at the recital of 
such bloodthirsty threats with no higher mo- 
tive than to gain a few votes. 

MONEY USED TO CARRY THE ELECTIONS. 

Read the following from the Providence (R 
I.) Post: 

"Money. — The Republicans admit that they 
used $40,000 in this city on Wednesday. We 
guess they used more. They gave as high as 
Bi5 for a vote, and there was no competition, 
either. We are glad that men who are willing 
to sell out are beginning to ask a high price. 

"In East Providence the price ran high, 
notwithstanding the fact that our friends did 
not use a dollar. 

"In Warwick the Republicans found Colonel 
Butler a hard man to beat, and offered thirty 
dollars for a vote all day. 

"In North Providence the Republicans spent 
fifteen to twenty thousand dollars." 

Can a party which sanctions such rascality 
be a friend to Republican institutions? 

Phillip, of Macedon, used money to de- 
stroy the liberties of the Athenian^, and Addi- 
son in speaking of which says: 

"A man who is furnished with arguments 
from the Mint^ will convince his antagonist 
much sooner than one who draws them from 
reason and philosophy. Gold is a wonderful 
clearer of the understanding; it dissipates 
every doubt and scruple in an instant; accom- 
modates itself to the meanest capacities; si- 
lences the loud and clamorous, and brings over 
the most obstinate and inflexible. Philip of 
Macedon refuted by it all the wisdom of the 
Republic of Athens, confounded their states- 
men, struck their orators dumb, and at length 
argued them out of their liberties.''^ 

History seems to be repeating itself very 
rapidly and unfortunately for our once great 
country. Our political opponents now in pow- 
er seem to only have studied the very worst 
side of it. The saying that "when the wicked 
rule the people mourn," originated from just 
such history as our rulers are repeating. 

NO POLITICS IN THIS WAR. 

One Casper Hawes, a disabled soldier, ob- 
tained the situation as sutler in the Philadel- 



phia Hospital, and was summarily discharged 
therefrom, for no other reason, says the Phil- 
adelphia Age. than appears in the following 
official note, which was proved a lie just after 
the election: 

Hawes had been crippled for life in the de- 
fense of his country, and this was the only 
means he had of getting a living. 

Mower U. S. Gex.'l IIifePiAL, 1 

Philadelphia, Oct. 30, 1S63. j 

"Sir: — Having heard from Mr. Sands, of 
the Chestnut Hill Union Committee, that you 
voted the Democratic ticket, and expressed 
yourself inimical to the present Government, 
you are hereby notified that after November 
you can no longer be a sutler to this Hospital. 

By order of the surgeon in charge. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
THOMAS C. BRAINARU, 
Ass't Surgeon U. S. A., and Executive Officer. 

No politics in this war! 

Just prior to the election in Wisconsin, in 
1863, the Milwaukee Sentinel, the leading Ab- 
olition paper of the state, kept standing in its 
columns, in flaming capitals, this line: 

"Those who vote must fight." 

This was intended as a fraud on those of our 
foreign born citizens who had not become suf- 
ficiently acquainted with the laws, customs and 
"regulations" to know its falsity. The object 
was to create an impression among this class 
of citizens that the act of voting would of itself 
send them into the army. In this way thou- 
sands of Democratic voters were kept away 
from the polls. It may be a fine thing to laugh 
over and to impugn their "loyalty," as the 
organs of that party were wont to do, but the 
army records show that this class of citizens 
have been as free to volunteer as those exces- 
sive "loyal" Republicans, who always cry 
"^0," but never say '■^come." 

abolition roorbacks. 
The Abolitionists have been in the habit,ju8t 
before the elections, of starting some wonder- 
ful "roorback," detailing some great Union 
victory over the rebels, with a view to obtain 
votes, by making the pe*ple believe they were 
really doing something and were entitled to 
confidence. Just before the Chicago election, 
in April, 1863, that party caused it to be tele- 
graphed west that Charleston was taken, when 
they knew it was not The knowledge ©f this 
false news was charged upon the administration 
and has never been denied. Similar roorbacks, 
for similar purposes, were started and circula- 



288 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



ted about the taking of Vicksburg and other 
places, when the oonspirators knew them to be 
fal&e. 

THE UNION LEAGUE MACHINERY. 

John AV. Fohney, early in 1863, stated 
■that 

"The Union men — in such organizations as 
Union Leagues, or whatever capacity they 
please to act, have opeaed the campaign, and 
intend to support the President in 1863, and if 
possible to control the election of President in 
J864." 

lEt will be remembered that all along the 
Tadicals had denied that the Union Leagues 
were a political organization. But Forney 
boldly admits what all outsiders know. Now, 
how do these Union Leaguers propose to carry 
the elections? Let them speak for themselves. 
At one of their meetings in Cincinnati March 
1863, Judge Woodfuff, who presided, said: 

"'•The American flag [Greeley's 'flaunting 
lie'] and the laws [excepting such as they don't 
like] maintained, and THE ELECTION CAR- 
RIED, EVEN AT THE PPJCE OF BLOOD, 
for upon this everything depended." 

Mr. Hancock, who disgraced the profession 
<dT school teacher, spoke at the same meeting, 
anS declared: 

"He believed that mob law was wholesome, 
sometimes!'"' 

A Col. Guthrie also spoke: 

"He informed those present that the League 
■was military as well as political — that they 
vrere drilling nightly, and were prepared for 
any emergency." 

After appointing delegates to attend the 
Grand Council of the Union Leagues of the 
United States at Chicago on the 25th of March, 

Professor Allyn, of the Weslyan Seminary 

a teacher of young ladies, said: 

"But this time we must make it all right, 
and carry thj election by any measures neces- 
sary to do it " 

We omit much of the filthiness of low pro- 
fanity that marked much of what was said, and 
will close with this League by copying the 
following proposition they had up for discus- 
sion : 

" For the members of the Association, and 
all other Union men, to prohibit all the news 
laoys from conveying and selling any opposi- 
tion paper ; to note every man that takes and 
jeads it, and forbid him entering your compa- 
ny — give him no employment — run him from 
your midst — turn him out of your church — 
mark every man and woman at your boarding 



house that read it — make it too hot for them to 
stay there — turn them out." 

DE. LEIBEE ON SOLDIERS VOTING. 

Dr. Leiber, in his work entitled " Civil 
Liberty and Self-Government," says : 

" An election can have no value whatever if 
the following conditions are not fulfilled : The 
question must have been fairly before the peo- 
ple for a period sufBciently long to discuss the 
matter thoroughly, and under circumstances to 
allow discussion. * * * The lib- 
erty of the press, therefore, is a condition sine 
qua. non. * * * * It is espe- 
cially necessary that the army be in abeyance, 
as it were, with reference to all subjects and 
movements appertaining to the question at is- 
sue. The English laiv requires the removal of 
the garrison from every place where a common 
election for parliament is going on. * * 

"All elections must be superintended by 
election judges and officers, independent of the 
Executive, or any other organized or unorgan- 
ized powers of the government. The indecen- 
cy as well as the absurdity and immorality of 
the governmont recommending what is to be 
voted, ought never to be permitted. * * 
If any one of these conditions be omitted, the 
whole election or voting is vitiated," 

And again, says the Doctor in another part 
of his celebrated work: 

"A perfect dependence of the forces, how- 
ever, not only requires short approbations and 
limited authority of the Executive over them, 
but it is further necessary — because they are 
under strict discipline, and therefore under a 
strong influence of the Executive — that these 
forces, and especially the army, be not allow- 
ed to become deliberative bodies, and that they 
be not allowed to vote as military bodies, — 

WHEREVER THESE GUARANTEES HAVE BEEN 
DISREGARDED. LIBERTY HAS FALLEN! ! ! 

t 
GEN, MILROY ON "H03IE TRAITORS,"' 

In April, 1863, Gen. Milroy, no doubt per 
order, (he has certainly never been censured 
for it) published a letter (a poor way for a 
General to fight) in which he thus sets forth 
the bloody purposes of himself and partizans: 

"I join with my fellow soldiers of the Union ^ 
everywhere, in warning these traitors at home 
[all Democrats who do not vote the Abolition 
ticket are called "traitors"] that ivhen ive have 
crushed armed treason at the South, and re- 
stored the sovereignty of our government over 
these misguided States, (which under God we 
are sure to do) we will, upon our return, tvhile 
our hands are in, also exterminate treason in 
the North, by arms, if need be, and seal, by 
the blood of traitors, wherever found, the per- 
manent peace of our country and the perpetu- 
ity of free [negro] government to ail future 
generations. R. H. MILROY." 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



289 



What a lovely prospect for the people of the 
North! ^'- After this war is over" — "while our 
hands are in," — [blood] we, the partizans of 
the Administration, in the army, will imbue 
our hands in the blood of our Northern broth- 
ers and neighbors, who have not agreed with 
all the President has done, or may do! This 
is literally what these bloodthirsty marplots 
mean. We arc making history which "we can- 
not escape." 

brol'Gh's appeal from the b.vllot to the 

BULLET. 

John Brough, the candidate for Governor 
of Ohio, against Mr. Vallahdigham, in one 
of his campaign speeches in Ohio, in 1863. 
said: 

"What will be the effect of electing Mr. 
Vallaudigham GoTernor of Ohio? I will tell 
you what will be the effect of it. It ivill bring 
civil ivar into your State — civil war into your 
own homes — upon the soil of yoar ;wn State 
— for I tell you there is a mighty mass of men 
in the State, whose nerves are strung up like 
steel, lohowill never permit this dishonor to be 
consummated in their native State." 

In plain language then, this meant that if the 
people should elect Mr. Vallandigham 
BROUGn'a friends, and the administration 
would have inaugurated civil war in the State, 
and put him down by force. What a commentary 
on free government! 

jiORE threats. 
A Washington correspondent of the Wiscon- 
sin State Journal (sux^posed to be a United 
State's Senator) under date of May 6th, 1863, 
said: 

"The morning papers bring the announce- 
ment of the f^rrest of the notorious Vallandig- 
ham who for the last eight months has been 
flooding the country with treasonable speeches, 
and no doubt some of his disciples and co-lab- 
orers in Wisconsin are already writing long 
editorials against "arbitrary arrests,' styling 
him the martyr of a military despotism. Their 
time may come next! A brilliant success of the 
army may save them, but if our armies should 
be repulsed, let them beware !" 

That these threats have not been carried in- 
to execution, shows no want of disposition, but 
only the lack of brute courage. 

CONWAT vents^open threats right in the very 
portals of the Capitol, and within its halls, by 
advocating a dissolution of the Government. — 
Vallandigham never uttered a sentiment of 
that kind, and yet these terrible threats and a 
black cloud of denunciations are hurled at Mr. 



V. and his friends, while no Abolitionist has 
ever asked to have Conway punished, or in 
any manner interfered with. The reason and 
the only reason is as plain as the sun at mid- 
day — Conway votes the Republican ticket and 
is in favor of the Radical scheme to break ap 
this Union — Vallandigham is right the re- 
verse way of thinking, and has exposed their 
treason. 

MORE THREATS FROM ARMY POLITICIANS. 

K. Bertram, Colonel of the 20th Wis. Vol., 
published in the Wisconsi7i State Journal of 
April 18, 1863, a series of resolutions, which 
he claims were nearly unanimously passed by 
said regiment [its officers], from which we se- 
lect the third resolution, as bloody enough for 
a Marat : 

" Resolved, That those who complain so 
loudly and so lithly about the suspension of 
the writ of habeas corpus and the institu- 
tion of martial law in time of actual 
rebellion, ought themselves to be suspended be- 
tiveen heavtn and earth by a few yards of hemp 
well adjusted around their ?>.ecks.^' 

Neither in France or Austria would such 
demoniac resolutions be tolerated over the sig- 
nature of military officers. But in this "free 
and enlightened"' country, anything to obtain 
votes. 

the whole thixNS justified. 

The Boston Commonwealth, in admitting the 
wicked and unlawful means resorted to by the 
Administration to carry the elections, attempts 
to justify the monstrous wrongs: 

"We do not find fault with the machinery 
used to carry Maryland and Delaware. Having 
nearly lost the control of the House by its 
blunders in the conduct of the war from 
March, 1861, to the fall of 1862, the Adminis- 
tration owed it to the country to recover that 
control somehow. To recover it regularly was 
impossible; so irregularity had to be resorted 
to. Popular institutions will not suffer, for the 
copperhead element will have a much larger 
number of members in both branches than it is 
entitled to by its popular vote. Ohio, with its 
ninety thousand Republican majority, will be 
represented by five Republicans and a dozen or 
more Copperheads. It is fitting that this mis- 
representation of popular sentiment in the 
great state of the West should be offset, if ne- 
cessary, by a loyal delegation from Maryland 
and Delaware, wo?i even at the expense of mili- 
tary interference. If laws are silent amid the 
clank of arms, we must take care that the ag- 
gregate public opinion of the country obtains 
recognition somehow or other." 



290 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



THE NEW YORK INDEPENDENT BOASTS OF THE 
INFAMY. 

In speaking of the spring elections, the New 
York Independent said: 

"The Administration, for the first time since 
it came into power, used its legitimate influance 
on the right side in the New Hampshire election, 
and the second occasion was in Connecticut." 

This ''inflnence" consisted in sending such 
and only such soldiers home as would pledge 
themselves to vote the Abolition ticket, and re- 
fuse to allow any Democrat to go. And this is 
that Administration that come into power on 
the promise ©f freedom and reform. God save 
the mark. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

SYMPATHY BETWEEN RADICALS AND REBELS— 
THE DRAFT, &.Q. 

The Rebels Hate tha Democracy and Sympathize with the 
Radicals. ..General Remarks.. .Benjamin's Speech In 1860 
...Breckinridge Seceshers Toasted with Office, &c... Rich- 
mond Examiner on Vallandigham, Cox, Ac. .Mobile 
Register on Democrats and Abolitionists....The Draft vs. 
VQluntcering.„.A'olunteering a Success....'\Vilson's and 
Fessenden's Admissions. ...Xhad Stevens on ''Alarming 
Expenses''... .Too many Troops to pay, but none to Spare 
McClellan....GeneraI Remarks, &c....The number of Men 
called for....Cameron's Eulogy on Voluuteering....Cost of 
Conscription. ...Opinions of the Republican Press on the 
Draft....Albany Statesnian....The Draft in Rhode Island 
....A candid Statement by a RepuDlican paper....The 
Conscription in Massachusetts.... A mysterious Draft in 
New York....ResuIt of Draft in ninth District of Massa- 
chusetts and eighth District of New york....Thurlow 
Weed on "Sneaks". ...Drafting in the time of the Revo- 
lution....Remarks Thereon. 

HOW THE REBELS HATE THE DEMOCRACY 
AND SYMPATHIZE WITH THE ABOLITION- 
ISTS. 

That the Southern rebels have from the start 
hated the Nerthern Democracy and gave pre- 
ference to the Abolitionists, because they (the 
abolitionists) hate the old Union, has been 
known and appreciated ever since the campaign 
of 1860. During that campaign it is well known 
that the secessionists and Republicans worked 
together, cheek-by-jowl, for a common purpose 
— that common purpose was a division of the 
Democratic party, that a division of the Union 
might follow. This is a hard charge, but when 
read by the light of confessions, which abound 
in this work, no other proof is wanting. 

On the 22d of May, 1860, the great rebel 
leader, J. P. Benjamin, a Senator from Lou- 
isiana, made a gross and unprovoked attack on 
Stephen A. Douglas, and called it a speech. 
This was expressly intended as an electioneer- 



ing document, and was printed by the million, 
and circulated throughout the North and the 
South — the expense being equally divided be- 
tween the secessionists and the Republicans. 
The portion of these incendiary documents 
falling to the Republicans, were sent all over 
the North, as plentiful as autumn leaves, under 
the franks of Republican members of Con- 
gress. We have one before us that came under 
the frank of "Jas. R. Doolittle, M. C." 
Yes, this speech, which contained doctrines 
that slavery must be protected in all the terri- 
tories, by law, that it was held sacred there by 
the constitution, and which also contained the 
most florid pufiFs on Abraham Lincoln, was 
sent broad-cast over the North by Republicans, 
acting as twin coadjutors with the Southern re- 
bels. In speaking of the relative merits of 
Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln, this South- 
ern fire-eater said: 

" His (DouGLas') adversary (Mr. Lincoln) 
stood upon principle (in the Illinois Senatorial 
Canvass), and was beaten, and lo ! he is the 
candidate of a mighty party for the Presidency 
of ihe United States." 

This was said to the praise of Lincoln, and 
the disparagement of Mr. Douglas. Through, 
out the whole speech, not one word is uttered 
against Mr. Lincoln, or what the South pre- 
tended to believe his heresies, but Douglas 
was vehemently denounced. And why was 
this ? Because there had no doubt been an 
agreement — an understanding between the two 
wings of Disunionists, to help elect Lincoln, 
and as soon as he was elected, this same Ben- 
jamin and his rebel followers were to claim 
the election as a cause for secession! 

One of the main objections to Mr. Douglas 
was, as seen on page 4 of said speech, that he 
had acted ■' consistent" with his former course. 
Such were the means resorted to by these twin 
factions to break the last link (the Democratic 
party) that existed between the North and the 
South. All other links — the churches and civil 
relations, had long before been sundered. 

Now, take these facts in connection with the 
treasonable utterances of the leaders of the 
party in power — their votes — their resolutions 
— their anathemas against the Union — in 
short, their former and their present attitude 
with regard to the " Union as it was, and the 
Constitution as it is" — and also take what fol- 
lows in this chapter — and who that has sense 
and patriotism combined can doubt that the 
sad events of the past thirty months have not 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



291 



been the result of an " understanding," clear 
and well defined, to break up the Union? 

The mad schemes and disunion purposes of 
the Breckinridge faction were as well known 
(we make a few honorable exceptions for those 
who were really blinded) as they are now. — 
The fact that they contemplated disunion was 
patent, for they boasted of it. Neither Breck- 
inridge nor his friends would answer the que- 
ries of Judge Douglas, propounded at Nor- 
folk, as to their designs at revolution. And 
still, the Republicans took these traitors to 
their bosoms. They furnished the means to 
establish and keep alive newspapers at the 
North, in the interest of that faction, where 
they were not numerous enough to keep alive 
a 7x9 half-penny sheet. In all the state of 
Wisconsin the Breckinridge ticket only re- 
ceived some 800 out of near 153,000 votes, and 
yet an expensive newspaper, called the Argus 
8r Democrat, was kept up at Madison, in that 
state, by Republican money, and it is well 
known that Republicans paid for and distrib- 
uted a large number of copies among the 
people, nor was this all. One Calkins, who 
was the willing tool to defame Douglas and 
advocate the secession platform through its 
columns, was rewarded by a fat ofiBce at the 
hands of the Republicans. N. B. Van Slyke, 
one of the Breckinridge electors in the same 
state, was rewarded by a fat and lucrative of- 
fice, as one of the military blessings that flowed 
from Republican hands. Another elector on 
that ticket, in the same state, H. D. Barron, 
has been not only appointed by the Republi- 
can Governor as Circuit Judge, but has been 
twice elected by that party as member of the 
Assembly, and received as high as 46 votes 
for Lt. Gouernor, in their State Convention of 
1863. 

These are sample specimens "away out 
West." In the East the big leaders of the 
Breckinridge faction were among the first to 
be invited to the Abolition feast of spoils. Ben. 
Butler, who boasted of having voted for Jeflf. 
Davis one hundred times, was rewarded with a 
Major General's commission, which enabled 
Ms brother to make a "good thing" in the De- 
partment of New Orleans, it is said, to the tune 
of thirteen millions. 

Edwin M. Stanton, another, who rode 
the Breckinridge hobby, occupies a seat in the 
synagogue of Abraham the I. Daniel S. 
Dickinson was rewarded by a high place on 



the Abolition ticket in New York. Hundreds 
and thousands of others were likewise rewarded 
by the abolitionists for their subserviency to 
the destroyers of our Union, all of which show 
that it pays to have been an advocate of seces- 
sion candidates and the extreme southern doc- 
trine. Let the student of history draw his own 
conclusions from these facts. 

JEFF. DATIS' OFFICIAL ORGAN ON DEMOCRATS. 

The Richmond Examiner^ the especial organ 
of Jeff. Davis, in speaking of Vallandig* 
HAM and Cox, of Ohio, used this expressive 
language, which shows where their rebel sym- 
pathies lie, April. 1863: 

"We wish from our hearts they were both ■ 
already safely chained up at the present wri- 
ting- They have done \ismose harm — they and 
their like — than ten thousand Sewards and 
Sumners, We tremble to see their unwhole- 
some advances, and still more to see a morbid —^ 
craving here to respond to them, under the de- 
lusive idea of promoting intestine divisions at / 
the North. 

"Oh, Dictator Lincoln, lock ye up those two 
peace Democrats — together with Richardson — 
in some of your military prisons!" 

THE MOBILE REGISTER SATS "GIVE US SUCH 
MEN A3 SUMNER," ETC. 

The Mobile Register, shortly after Vallan- 
diqqam's deportation uttered the following re- 
markable piece ot cozening to the Abolition- 
ists. Read: 

"We thank God from the depths of our 
hearts that the authorities at Washington snub- 
bed Vice President Stephens in his late at- 
tempt to confer with the-n on international af- 
fairs, without form or ceremony. It has long 
been known here that this gentleman thought 
if he conld get to whisper into the ears of some 
men about Washington, the result might be 
terms of peace on some sort of Union or recon' 
struction. He seemed to forget that Douglas, 
with whom he used to serve, is dead, and not- 
withstanding his mantle has fallen, by dividing 
it into four pieces, upon Richardson and Voor- 
hees, Vallaudigham and Pugh, still the Demo- 
cratic party is not in power now, thank God 
for it. 

"The prospect looked gloomy to the Vice 
President, whose infirmity of body no doubt 
cast a shadow over his spirits, and he said that 
one of two things must be done: either some 
terms must be made, or the whole militia of 
the Confederacy must be called out, and imme- 
diate alliance proposed with foreign powers. 
President Davis gave him fullpowers to treat 
on honorable terms, and started him off to the 
Kingdom of Abraham. But Father Abraham 
told him there was an impassible gulf between 
them, and the Vice President had to steam 
back to Richmond, a little top fallen. 



292 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



"We hope this will put a stop forever io some 
croakers about here, who intimate that there 
are people enough Liendly to the South in the 
North, to restore the Union as it was. And 
we also hope that the government at Richmond 
will not humiliate itself any more, but from 
this time will look only to the^one end of final 
and substantial independence. The North is 
not less tet on a final separation than we are. 
The Republican party is not fighting to restore 
this Union, any more than the old Romans 
fought to establish the independence of the 
countries they invaded. The Republicans are 
fighting for conquest and dominion, we for lib- 
erty and independence. 

" There is only one party in the North who 
want this Union restored, but they have no 
more power — legislative, executive or judicial 
— than the paper we write on. It is true, they 
make a show of union and strength, but they 
have no voice of authority. We know that the 
Vallandigham school wants the Union restored, 
for he told us so, when here in exile, partak- 
ing of such hospitality as we extended to a real 
enemy to our struggle for separation, banished 
to our soil by another enemy., who is prat ic ally 
more our friends than he. And if Vallandig- 
ham should by accident or other cause, be- 
come Governor of Ohio, we hope Lincoln will 
keep his nerves to the proper tension, and not 
^Uow him to enter the confines of the State. — 
lis Administration u-ould do more to restore 

leold Union, than any other power in Ohio 
.ould do, and therefore, we pray he may be 
defeated. 

" Should a strong Union party spring up in 
Ohio, the third State in the North, in political 
importance, it might find a faint response in 
some Southern States, and yive us trouble. — 
But as long as the Republicans hold power, 
they will think on conquest and dominion ocly, 
and we, on the other hand, will come up in 
solid column for freedom and independence, 
which we will be certain to achieve with such 
assistance as we now (after the refusal of the 
Washington Cabinet to confer,) confidently ex- 
pect before the Democrats of the nation get in- 
to power again, and come whispering in our 
ears Union, Re-co7istruction, Co7istitutio7i, con- 
cessions and guarantees. Away with all such 
stuff. We want separation. Give us lather 
men like Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sum- 
ner. THEY CURSE THE OLD UNION, 
AND DESPISE IT, AND SO DO WE ! ! 
And we now advise these gentlemen, that, as 
they hate the Union and the accursed Consti- 
tution, let them keep dowji Mr. Vallandigham 
and his party in the North, then they shall 
never be troubled by us with such whining 
about the Constitution and Union, as they are 
sending up." 

This, then, shows that there is both a fellow- 
feeling and a fellow-purpose between the reb- 
els and the Abolitionists. The rebels know 
the radicals do not want the Union restored, 
and in this they both agree, and the reason 
why the rebels are so prejudiced against the 



Democrats, is, that they know every Democrat 
is in favor of restoration. But enough on this 
subject. 

TOE OaAFT VS. VOLUNTEERING. 

To say nothing of the fact that nine-tenths 
of the legal mind of the nation believe the 
mode adopted to procure soldiers by draft, is 
unconstitutional, by reason of usurping the 
rights and power of the states over the militia, 
and that the conscription act has been decided 
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of 
Pennsylvania, on this and other grounds — to 
say nothing of this, tJere are features in the 
operation and ill-success of the draft, that re- 
quire a moment's attention. 

It is far from our purpose to indulge in a 
fault-finding spirit, merely for the purpose of 
finding fault. We would by no means throw 
an obstacle in the way of any just, constitu- 
tional and patriotic effort to put out the fires of 
the rebellion. We would rather assist, all that 
may be in our power, and the most effective 
way to assist the Administration is to candidly 
point out its errors, wrongs and crimes, with a 
view to correct and improve. 

VOLUNTEERING A SUCCESS 

The Administration, so long as it adhered to 
its first declared policy found no difficulty in 
getting all the soldiers it wanted. Nearly, if 
not quite a million of men rushed forth, in vast 
numbers, so rapidly that Senator Wilson, of 
Mass., chairman of the Military Committee, 
became alarmed, and said in his place: 

"I have over and over again been to the War 
office, and urged upon the Department to stop 
recruiting in every part of the country. We 
have had the promise that it should be done. — 
I believe we have to-day 250,000 more men un- 
der the pay of the government than we need, 
or can well use. I think the Department ought 
to issue peremptory orders forbidding the en- 
listment of another soldier iato the volunteer 
force." 

About the same time Mr. Fessenden, of 
Maine, another abolition Senator, said: 

''In every state in the Union, there are men 
who are paid from month to month, not called 
into the field for the reason that the Govern- 
ment has no occasion to use them; and yet no 
step is taked to disband these men. Why not 
disband them if they are not wanted? We have 
250,000 more than we ever intended to have. — 
It is extravagance of the most wanten kind. I 
offered a proposition to stop all enlistments." 

Thus, we have it from the highest abolition 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



293 



authority, that our armies were too large for 
the purpose o' subduing the rebellion. 

About this time Thad. Stevens, chairman 
of the committee on ways and means in the 
House, denounced the extravagance of so large 
an army, in the foUowina' style: 

"We shall have to appropriate more than six 
hundred million dollars without the addition of 
a single dollar beyond what is estimated for. 
New, sir, that in itself is alarming. I confess 
I do not see how, unless the expenses are 
greatly curtailed, this government can possibly 
go on six months. If we go on as we have been 
doing, the finances, not only of the Govern- 
ment, but of the whole country, must give 
way, and the people will be involved in one 
general bankruptcy and ruin. We have already 
in the field an army of six hundred and sixty 
thousand men, &c." 

Not far from the period at which these men 
gave the above utterances, Gen. McClellan 
was on the Chickahominy asking for a rein- 
forcement of 50,000 troops, with which he said 
he had not the least doubt he could take Rich- 
mond in a few days. But the powers at Wash- 
ingto had no troops to spare! and ordered his 
retreat from the pursuit of the rebel capital. 
The Administration and the disloyal and trait- 
orous abolitionists that controlled it, saw that 
if Richmond was taken it would end the war, 
and the war ended without the accomplishment 
of their darling object — the abolition of slavery, 
would not suit their programme, so our brave 
and ill-treated army was hauled off, and the re- 
bels given time to again recuperate — the mouse 
was permitted to gain sufficient strength to en- 
tertain those who desired to play with it. 

From that day to this the Army of the Poto- 
mac has been crushed by the foolhardy and 
criminal policy emanating from the "throne of 
power." They have been required to march 
up the hill and then to march down again, and 
have not been permitted to accomplish anything 
worthy of their patriotism and courage, except 
when the old grannies in and around the White 
House became frightened for their own indi- 
vidual safety. 

The people are fast settling down on the 
conclusion that those wno control the Adminis- 
tration do not want to take Richmond — do not 
want the war to close until they can provoke a 
state of despotism which may enable them to 
abolish slavery, or "let the Union slide." 
This war is being prolonged — the lives and the 
fortunes of our people are being sacrificed, be- 
yond any necessity of saving the Union, and 



all to enable the Abolitioniets to cairy out 
their primary designs. 

It has been a standing remark, for Republi- 
can as well as Democratic papers, that the 
Army of the Potomac was too near Washing- 
ton to accomplish anything. This is true, and 
the reason why they have accomplished nothing 
is because the radicals had resolved they 
should accomplish nothing, beyond the bare 
guarding of AVashington. We can now see an 
object in this. It is a link in the same object 
that brought on a collision by sending an un- 
armed vessel to banter the rebels at Charleston 
to a fight. 

The rebellion is now reeling at every step. 
We have more men in the field now than when 
Wilson and Fessexden clamored for a cessa- 
tion of enlistments, and the rebels are no 
stronger, and still the Administration is reach- 
ing out after conscripts, and by frauds the 
most damnable, are endeavoring to draft most- 
ly Democrats, in the hope that they may per- 
petuate their power. They are determined not 
to allow the rebels to come back and be good 
citizes, until they can destroy their state 
rights, and so cripple their power that they 
cannot vote against the Abolition party . That 
is the secret of their refusal to accept a sur- 
render, as their leading organ, the New York 
Times^ declares they will refuse, if a surren- 
der is ofi'ered, Does all this look as though the 
Administration was laboring to save this 
Union, and for that only? Does it not show 
that they care more for the future strength of 
their party than they do for the Union? 

It may be uncharitable, but we must con- 
fess that we can see it in no other light. We 
believe as firmly as we believe in the existence 
of an All-wise God, that the real purpose of 
insisting on the draft, is to keep the people of 
the North embittered and divided by a series 
of gross frauds on the one hand, and lamenta- 
ble mobs on the other. If the system of prov- 
ocation and reaction can be kept up, it is no 
doubt intended to consummate what Douglas 
predicted, to dissolve the Union and establish 
a Dictatorship, whenever it can be done with 
a show of shifting the responsibility on their 
opponents, or rendering a military excuse. — 
Hence, we firmly believe, the draft is held 
constantly over the heads of the people in ier- 
rorem, to affect the elections, in those various 
ways 80 susceptible to Abolition manipulation 
by the army of Provost Marshals. We have 



294 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS 



exhibited some of these objects in former chnp- 
ters of this work. 

NUMBER OF MEN CALLED FOR. 

In round numbers, the President has thus 
far called for about 2,100,000 men, and of 
these about 1,000,000 have been called for by 
draft. Of the whole number, about 1,200,000 
have been secured, and without pretending to 
be exact, (not having the figures before us), we 
may safely say, that aside from volunteer sub- 
stitutes, the Administration has not obtained 
20,000 men, as living trophies from the '• prize 
wheel." This is an exceedingly small per 
cent- 

MB. Cameron's eulogy on volunteering. 

Mr. Secretary Cameron, in his first report, 
before the radical measures had been fully de- 
veloped, said: 

"History will record that men who, in ordi- 
nary times, were devoted solely to the arts of 
peace, were yet ready, on the instant, to rush 
to arms in defense of their rights when assail- 
ed. At the present moment, the government 
presents the striking anomaly of being embar- 
rassed by the generous outpouring of volun- 
teers to sustain its action. Instead of labor- 
ing under the difficulty of monarchical govern- 
ments, the want of men to fill its armies, 
tvhich in other countries has compelled a resort 
to forced conscriptions, one of its main diffi- 
culties is to keep down the proportions of the 
army." 

He says again: 

'•J cannot forbear to speak favorably of the 
volunteer system, as a substitute for a cum- 
brous and dangerous standing army. * * 
A government whose every citizen stands 
ready to march to its defense can never be 
overthrown; for none is so strong as that 
whose foundations rest immovably in the hearts 
of the people." 

And the second report from the same office 
glowed with a no less deserved panegyric on 
this system. 

COST OF THE CONSCRIPTION. 

We have seen it stated, though with what de- 
gree of facts to back it we know not, that each 
soldier drafted and mustend into the United 
States forces, has cost the people not less than 
$3000. This is an enormous sum we know, but 
when we take into account the vast army of offi- 
cers who are stationed all over the North, 
hunting down desertiifg conscripts, at ^15 or 
$30 per head — the trouble, delay, and vast ex 
pense attending on making the enrollment — 



costing nearly as much as the taking of the cen- 
sus — the support of Draft Commissioners — Ex- 
amining Boards — provost marshals, spies, del- 
ators, and the tens of thousands of officers 
that must be paid and fed from the public crib 
— all to procure the poorest material for war 
we cannot doubt the statement. We say "poor- 
est" advisedly, for so far as we have read his- 
tory and studied human nature, a vurm forced 
into the ranks against his will, is, in nine cases 
out of ten, inferior to the volunteer, because 
his heart is against it. 

From the observation we have been enabled 
to make, of all the facts, we are prepared to 
hazard the opinion that with less than a third 
of the expense incurred, the Government could 
have got all the men it wanted. Had it abol- 
ished — or rather never organized — its hordes 
of enrollment and draft officers and hangers- 
on, and applied the funds they have absorbed, 
to liberalizing the soldiers' monthly pay, to — 
say $25 per month, we should have heard noth- 
ing of mobs and riots, and no complaints of a 
lack of men, even under the present pernicious 
policy. This is the candid opinion of one who 
has been in favor of a most vigorous prosecu- 
tion of the war to crush the rebellion, from the 
start. 

republican opinions. 

The Albany Statesman, a Republican paper, 
thus warned the Government against continu- 
ing longer to insist upon the enforcement of 
the draft: 

"The Government never committed a more 
fatal mistake than when it abandoned the vol- 
unteer and bounty systems — systems which put 
into the field a million men in eighteen months. 
The Government, after it puts down ihe riot 
in New York, should take a calm view of the 
dangers which surround us, and if possible re- 
turn to a system which has never failed us, 
and which should never have been abandoned. 
Every person who wishes to see the southern 
rebellion promptly put down, should use every 
exertion to prevent a rebellion from breaking 
out in the loyal states. We are no alarmist, 
and yet we candidly think that it will take 
more troops to enforce the draft in this state 
than is required to capture Richmond. 

" The rioters in New York should and must 
be crushed. AVe owe this to the supremacy of 
the laws. Having done this, we do beseech 
our rulers to so modify the draft that the loyal 
States may continue to exhibit an unbroken 
front against the rebellion. Nothing but this 
unbroken front can prevent the rebellion from 
becoming a success. We call upon President 
Lincoln to save the North from anarchy. God 
grant that he may be equal to the task. At the 



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295 



present time the Republic has more to fear from 
the follies of the war office than from a pair of 
armies such as Lee now heads in Maryland." 

THE riRAFT IN RHODE ISLAND. 

We clip the following from a Rhode Island 

paper: 

"In the First District, Wednesday, 78 ob- 
tained permission to go, pay, or find a substi- 
tute; and 95 were exempted — 49 for disability, 
10 were elected by their parents. 9 were aliens, 
2 were from families Jiaving already two in the 
service, 6 were of unsuitable age, 4 were only 
sons of widows, 8 were npn*residents, 4 are al- 
ready in the service, and 3 commuted. In the 
Second District 24 substitutes were accepted, 
51 were exempted for physical disability, and 
31 for various other causes." 

A statement went the rounds of the press, 
which we have not seen contradictad, that of 
all the persons conscripted in the state, but 
nineteen actually entered the service, and some 
of these were negroes. 

A CANDID STATEMENT BY A REPUBLICAN 
PAPER. 

The Springfield (Mass) Republican, a strong 
supporter of Mr. Lincoln, from first to last, 
in speaking of the draft in that State, thus 
testifies to its failure: 

" The daily reports of the results 
of the draft throughout the country, 
produce the general impression that it is a 
failure — that it will not add materially to the 
strength of our armies, and that it will cost 
more than it is :oorth. This is not absolutely 
true, but it must be confessed it is too close 
an approximation to the truth to be contem- 
plated with satisfaction. Evidently the Gov- 
ernment will not get one-fourth the number 
drafted, counting in the substitutes. Indeed, 
some consider one-fifth a large estimate. — 
[And this if a state where the "roads would 
swarm'' with volvnteers, if the proclamation 
should be issued!] Making due allowance for 
the states exempted from the draft, and the 
whole number actually drawn'will not be over 
300,000. Cae-fourth of this number will be 
75,000. But many of the conscripts, as well 
as substitutes, will make their escape, and the 
War Dei^artracut would undoubtedly jump at 
the chance to exchange the whole lot for 
50,000, or ev u4C, '00 volunteers. The draft, 
it must be coiicc! ■ 1. if not a failure, is not a 
very gratifying suc' .?. If the President could 
have foreseen how b idly the draft would have 
been mismanaged, we believe he would have 
decided to rely upon volunteering to fill up 
the armies, and as things have turned, he could 
have done so wit! safety. The money and 
effort expended on he conscription would have 
eecurec' fifty thousand volunteers, there is ev- 
ery reason lo believe. And it would have 
been a gluricus thing to record on the pages of 



history, that the great rebellion was put down 
entirely by the spontaneous and unforced pat- 
riotism of the people." 

THE conscription IN MASSACHUSETTS. 

[From the Boston Herald,] ; ^*^' 

"The work of examining conscripts in the 
different districts in this state has progressed 
quietly T3nd with good order during the past 
week. All the Boards of Enrollment have 
been in session to hear claims for exemption, 
and we regret to find that so many of those 
whose names were drawn have been compelled 
to go before the medical officer to claim ex- 
emption — it speaks ill of the climate of New 
England. 

"On reviewing the returns of the Boards of 
Enrolment for the districts of which Boston is 
a part, we find that during the week the board 
in district 3 has exempted 259 men, has receiv- 
ed satisfactory evidence that 13 have paid the 
commutation fee, has received and accepted 54 
substitutes, and has held one man to serve who 
reported at once for duty. 

"In the Fourth District 1,135 men have been 
examined, and of these 938 were declared by 
the Board to be exempt, 70 had paid the com- 
mutation fee, 10 were passed as fit for duty, 
and 108 substitutes were accepted. 

"In the first district, up to Friday night, 256 
conscripts had been examined by the 
Board of Enrolment in this city of whom 29 
were accepted and furloughed, 12 furnished 
substitutes, 21 commuted, and J04 were ac- 
cepted. 

"It is stated that Hon. Cileb Gushing has 
been retained by the Democratic Association 
of this state, who propose to test the constitu- 
tionality of the Conscription Law. H. W. 
Paine will be associated with him. Hon B. R. 
Uurtis, whose name has been before mentioned 
in this connection, may give a written opinion 
in the case." 

A mysterious DRAFT. 
[From the New York World.] 

'The draft which commences in this city to- 
day and which is about to be enforced all over 
the North, promises to be a very mysterious 
business. Instead of ordering a general con- 
scription, and publicly apportioning the quotas 
to the several states, the administration has 
privately notified the several district provost- 
marshals, and the drafting has been begun 
without the knowledge or information of the 
public. We believe this secret way of doing 
business is common in Russia or Austria, but 
it is quite new in this free country. 

So far we have no assurance that it is to be 
an equal conscription. From the number act- 
ually drafted in Rhode Island and Massachu- 
setts, it would seem that the call was for 300,- 
000 men; but the number required of the coun- 
ties of AVarren and Essex is on a basis of 400,- 
000. According to the Tribune, the number 
New York city must raise is 26,000, and Brook- 
lyn 10,000, which is conscripting at the rate of 
600,000 for the whole North. Can it be that 



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FITE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



the administration has so much more confidence 
in New York copperheads than New England 
Republicans that it calls for more of the form- 
er than the latter? This is really a serious 
matter, and in the absence of any official an- 
nouncement by the government of the number 
of men it requires, how do we know but what 
the secret instructions of the provost marshals 
are to conscript heavily in the Democratic dis- 
tricts and lightly in the Republican districts? 

Of course it is incredible that they should 
do this injustice; but the secrecy which marks 
the machinery of the draft naturally excites 
comment and uneasiness A Secretary of War 
who, on an occasion of great national rejoicing 
for victories won, is small souled enough and 
prejudiced enough to malign the majority of 
his fellow-citizens and apply to them an appro- 
brious party epithet, as Mr. Stanton did at the 
serenade the other evening, is equal to any in- 
justice towards the people he dislikos. Presi- 
dent Lincoln has issued a number of unneces- 
sary and mischievous proclamations, but we 
think one on this subject is very much needed 
to avoid misapprehensions." 

There is no doubt that the iniquities of the 
draft in New York was the cause of the dis- 
graceful riots in that city. 

RESULTS OF THE DHAFT IN M.ISSACHUSETTS. 

The whole number drafted in the 4th Dis- 
trict was 4,198. The account of the Esamin- 
Board stood as follows : 

Exempt for various causes 2,867 

Absentees 22 

Dead 4 

Paid commutation 13i 

Furnished substitutes 196 

Held and sent to corpi 46 

Not reported and deemed Deserters 939 

4,198 

RESULT IN THE 8th DISTKICT, NEW TORE. 

Whole number exempted 2,582 

Whele number examined 2,900 

Paid commutation S85 

Furnished substitutes 67 

Conscripts accepted C3 

These were no doubt extreme cases, but few 
districts have done much bettter, and the whole 
shows the system of draft to be a farce, and we 
are led to record our convictions that the draft 
is only kept up for political purposes, and not 
to obtain soldiers, for in fact, nearly all the 
soldiers that have been obtained for the past 
year have been enrolled by voluntary enlist- 
ments. 

THURLOW WEED ON " SNEAKS." 

The following from the pen of that conser- 
vative Republican, Thurlow "Weed, is as true 
as it is '• rough" : 

^' It is to be regretted that leading, boister- 
ous abolitionists who were so free of their abuse 
of all those who differ with them, fail to justi- 



fy their precepts by their examples. The edi- 
tor of the Independent, whose zeal for the draft 
led him to rail at all who questioned its wis- 
dom, when drafted himself,ingloriously shrinks 
from taking his share of duty and danger. — 
Shame on such a sneak. Subject by law to 
military duty, and constantly pressing others 
into the field, Mr. Tilton must be craven in 
spirit, without patriotism, pride or manhood, 
to skulk a draft himself, while he is merciless 
in regard to the mechanic and laborer, who is 
compelled to leave his wife and children. 

"Still more mortifying, if possible, is the 
course of Mayor Opdyke, whose drafted son, 
instead of gallantly stepping forward, as an 
example to poor men, sneaks! The Mayor is 
filled with patriotism at conventions — he is 
gorged with government contracts! He leans 
heavily upon the government to make good his 
profits, but his son, when drafted, is not strong 
enough to be a soldier. He is, however, strong 
enough to hold offices, but these offices do not 
expose him to anything but salary and fees. — 
Being a soldier is quite a diflFerent thing. Out 
upon such false practices — such cheap loyalty 
—such bogus patriotism." 

This just rebuke hits not only Mayor Op- 
dyke and the editor of the N. Y. Independent^ 
but it is a just criticism on the sneaking con- 
duct of nineteen-twentieths of those who have 
so long and loudly abused all Democrats who 
did not go to the war,and yet they will ' 'sneak" 
out of all danger — all responsibility — and if 
they can only get a fat contract or enjoy fat 
fees, they set themselves up as extra loyal! 
We have heard of a very loyal member of the 
Wisconsin Legislature, who gave his age in the 
Blue Book as considerably below the maximum 
for the first class, and yet, when drafted, he 
claims immunity — and gets it — for over age. — 
These things will happen among the best reg- 
ulated advocates of loyalty. 

DRAFTING IN THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTION, 

We recall to the memory of all who have read 
the history of the revolution, the action of the 
Congress at that period in relation to the prin- 
ciple of drafting, and to offer for their diges- 
tion the following morsel of history: 

On the 26th of February, 1778, the follow- 
ing resolutions were unanimously adopted by 
Congress: 

"Eesolved, That the several States hereafter named bo 
required forthwith to Jill up, hy drafts from their militia, 
or in any other way that shall bo effectual, their respective 
battalions of Continental troops. 

"All persons drafted shall serve in the Continental bat- 
talions of their respective States, for the space of nine 
months from the time they shall respectively appear at the 
several places of rendezvous hereinafter mentioned unless 
sooner discharged." 

"Sesolved, That all persons, in whatever way procured, 
for supplying the deficiencies in the Continental battalions 
unless enlisted for three years, or during the war, shall bo 
considered as drafted." etc. 

On the 9th of March, 1779, it was again— 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



2!»r 



"Jiesolced, That it be earnestly recommended to the 
several states to make up and complete their respective 
battalions to their full complement by draft, or in any 
other miinner they shall think proper, and that they have 
their quotas ofdeticiencies ready to take the field, and to 
march to such place as the Commandex-rin- Chief shall di- 
rect, without delay." 

"Thus, it appears, that during the Revolu- 
tionary war, men were drafted to fill up the reg- 
ular regiments of the line, and were immediate- 
ly subject to the orders of the Commander-in- 
Chief, without reference to, or control by, the 
Governors of the states. We have here, there- 
fore, the most undeniable precedent for the ac- 
tion of the last Congress and that of the Presi- 
dent, for raising drafted men and placing them 
in the army. None but Tories and the friends 
of the enemy opposed the principle then — none 
but traitors wtU do it now. — Rej). Paper. 

Ah, yes, but you forget one thing. You have 
offered a, precedent., but that precedent proves 
just what you didn't want it to. It proves that 
under the old Continental sway they never 
thought of allowing Congress to draft, but re- 
quired the states to fill up their quotas by 
drafts. That's precisely the Democratic way 
now. That's just the only way the Democrats 
believe to be constitutional — the only way to 
preserve state sovereignty, and state identity. 

With the following quotation from Burke, 
we will close this chapter: 

"I can conceive no existence under heaven, 
that is more truly odious and disgusting than 
an impotent, helpless creature, without civil 
wisdom or military skill — without a conscious- 
Jiess of any but his servility to it, bloated with 
pride and arrogance, and calling for battles 
which he is not tofight.^^ 



CHAPER XXXVI. 

LOYALTY AND PATRIOTISM OF DEMOCRATS. 

General Remarks and Facts pertaining to. ..The Democra- 
cy of New York. ..The Iowa Democracy. ..Doctrine of 
the Kentucky Democracy. ..The Ohio Democracy... The 
Democracy of Wisconsin. ..The Minnesota Democracy... 
Democracy of Pennsylvania. ..Illinois Democracy., ..Con- 
necticut Democracy. ...Democracy of Indiana. ...Of Colum- 
bus, Ohio....0f M.adison, Wis.....The National Democracy 
...Sayings and Doings of Leading Democrats. ..Governor 
Seymour's Proclamation. ..Gov. Seymour's Message... 
Gov. Parker's Proclamation. ..Kem.arks of Hon. 11. L. 
Palmer. ..Et tu Vallandigham... Democrats Rejoice at 
our Victories. ..Testimony of our opi)onents...NBW York 
Times.... Mr. Seward, Official... Judge Paine, of Wis.... 
Administration Compliment Gov. Seymour for his Pat- 
riotism, &.C. 



LOYALTY AND PATRIOTISM OF DEMOCRATS. 

Having ' shown, beyond a cavil, in the fore- 
going pages that the Republican leaders are 
disloyal to their goverement, we will now show 
by the best evidence that man can give or re- 
20 



ceive, that the Democracy of the country are 
now, as they ever have been, loyal to their 
government and true to the Union of their 
fathers. The best criteria of the aims and 
purposes of a party or individuals, are their 
recorded avowals — the actual and logical re- 
sults of their measures. Having judged of their 
opponents by these criteria, we will now pass 
in like review the principal leaders and meas- 
ures of the Democratic party. 

From 1801 to 1861 the Democracy of the 
nation had been constantly in power in one or 
all of the diflerent branches of Government, 
and most of this sixty years they had full con- 
trol of the entire administration of govern- 
ment. That the Democratic party during this 
long period, embracing the early pupilage of 
our government, may have committed errors — 
that individuals of the party may have perpe- 
trated gross wrongs in the name of that party, 
perhaps it would be uncandid to deny; but, 
history, the true arbiter, justifies us in the re 
petition of the oft reiterated, yet never im- 
peached declaration, that during all this peri- 
od — while the noble — historical Democracy — 
have been beset by all the ills that party and 
flesh are heir to, our country has flourished 
without a parallel in the annals of human gov- 
ernments. On every recurring national holi 
day. thousands of candidates for oratorical 
honors have over-taxed the eulogistic muses, 
and exhausted the most extravagant panegyr- 
ics on the fame and progress of our "Glo- 
rious Union."' All parties, without exception, 
appealing to facts and drawing lavishly from 
the store-house of fancy, had held up our 
country, in marked contrast with all other 
lands, as the most free, happy, progressive and 
prosperous — nor was it safe for foreign pre- 
tendei's to draw in question Brother Johna- 
than's panegyrics of the glorious past, or his 
predictions of the glorious future. 

This picture is by no means overwrought, and 
it shows that high grade of opinion in which, 
we, at least, held ourselves, and although the 
leading maratime powers of Europe may not 
have been willing to acknowledge that Brother 
Jonathan, yet scarcely out of his teens, had 
actually outstripped them in wealth and mate- 
rial greatness, they nevertheless acknowledged 
our vast and rapidly increasing power,and sent 
hither millions of their own citizens to be par- 
takers with us of those manifold blessings of 
personal happiness and civil liberty, for so 



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FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



many centuries denied them on their native 
soil. 

We may safely say, without fear of contra- 
diction, that for all these blessings of our gov- 
ernment, so justly celebrated for the wisdom 
and beneficence of its laws, the partakers were 
indebted to the Democratic party— for we be- 
lieve no one will question the fact, or attempt 
to impeach our veracity, when we state that 
every general law of general public import- 
ance, found on the statute book of the nation, 
up to December, 1860, had its origin in the 
remocratic party. Perhaps these laws, or 
many of them might have been bettered, for no 
man or party has yet reached the degree of 
Divine perfection— but such as they were — they 
constituted the basis of all our national pros- 
perity, so often and so long the lyric's song 
and the statesman's eulogy. 

During this sixty years — embracing a long 
war with the first maratime power on the globe, 
and sundry harrassing Indian wars, together 
with a war with the Rei^ublic of Mexico, no 
man was arbitrarily deprived of his liberty 
without a remedy — no press was destroyed by 
the direction or connivance of the administra- 
tors or executors of the laws — no system of 
espoinage, spies and delators was established. 
No citizen was ever exiled or banished — no 
suspension of the writ of habeas corpus occur- 
red outside of military lines. In short, no 
constitutional right was denied to the people 
without a remedy. No Democrat was known 
to curse this Union as a "league with hell,'' or 
any equivalent, impious anathema. No clear 
and unequivocal infractions of the constitution 
•were suffered. In short, the rights of life, 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness were guar- 
anteed to ail, in strict accordance with the 
constitution. 

Such, in brief, was the history and result 
of Democratic rule, up to the breaking out of 
our present troubles, and it becomes us now 
to enquire, what Democrats and the Demo- 
cratic party (we mean those and only those 
who fell not into the snares of secession) have 
done since that time. Our remarks will apply 
to the two millions of Democrats in the loyal 
Btates. Are they disloyal, or are they not? — 
L2t them answer for themselves. 

XHE NEW TOE.K DEMOCRACY. 

The following is the pertinent plank in the 
platform of the Democratic Convention that 



nominated Horatio Seymoub, September, 
1862: 

^'- First, That they will continue to render ^ 
the Government their sincere and united suji- 
port in the use of all legitimate means to sup- 
press the rebellion, and to restore the Union 
as it was. and maintain the Constitution as it 
is — believing that that sacred instrument, 
founded in wisdom by our fathers, clothes the 
constituted authorities with full power to ac- 
complish such purpose." 

NEW YOKK DEMOCRACY IN 1803. 
The State Convention that met at Albany. 
September, 1863. passed the following: 

'■'■Resolved, That we reaffirm the platform 
adopted by the Democratic Convention of 1862, 
viz.: First, That we will continue to render 
the Government our sincere and united support 
in the use of all legitimate means to suppress 
the rebellion, and to restore 'the Union as it 
was,'" and to maintain 'the Constitution as it 
is,' believing that sacred instrument, founded 
in wisdom by our fathers, clothes the consti- 
tuted authorities with full power to accomplish 
such i^urpose." 

THE IOWA DEMOCRACY— 1863. 

Gen. TuTTLE, the Democratic candidate for 
Gov. in 1863, issued an address to the people, 
from which we take the following, and on 
which he was supported by the Democracy : 

" I am in favor of a vigorous prosecution of 
the war to the full extent of our power, until 
the rebellion is suppressed, and of using all 
means that may be in our possession, recog- 
nized by honorable warfare, for that purpose. 
I am for the Union without an if, and regard- 
less whether slavery stands or falls by its res- 
toration, and in favor of peace on no other 
terms than the unconditional surrender of the 
rebels to the constituted authorities of the gov- 
ernment of the United States." 

DOCTRINE or THE KENTUCKY DEMOCRACY. 

The following from the message of Governor 
Bramlette, Sep. 1, 1863, is the doctrine not 
only of the Democracy of Kentucky, but eve- 
rywhere : 

'■'- We affiliate with the loyal men north and 
south, whose object and policy is to preserve 
the Union and the Constitution unchanged and 
unbroken, and to restore the people to harmo- 
ny and peace with the government, as they 
were before the rebellion. 

"It is not a restored Union, not a recon- 
structed Union, that Kentucky desires ; but a 
preserved Union, and a restored peace upon a 
constitutional basis." 

THE OHIO democracy. 

We select the following from among the 
planks of the Democratic platform adopted by 



SCRAPS FROM ^MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



299 



the convention that nominated Yallandig- 
iiAM, in 1S63: 

"That we ■will earnestly support every con- 
stitutional measure tending to preserve the 
Union of the States. No men have a greater 
interest in its preservation than we have. 
None desire it more. There are none who 
■will make greater sacrifices or endure more 
than we will to accomplish that end. We are, 
as we ever have been, the devoted friends of 
the Constitution and the Union, and we have 
no sympathy with the enemies of either." 

THE DEMOCRACY OF WISCONSIN. 

The following is from the celebrated "Ryan 
Address," adopted by the Democracy, in Mass 
Convention at Milwaukee, September, 1S62, 
and reaffirmed in 1863: 

"We claim the right on their behalf and our 
own, to censure the political acts of the Ad- 
ministration, when we think that they deserve 
it, and to do all lawfully within our power to 
sustain the supremacy of the Constitution in 
all places north or south, and over all persons 
in office and out of it. And to that end we de- 
vote our hearts, minds, estates, to aid the Ad- 
ministration in the most vigorous and speedy 
prosecution of the war ivaged against the Union 
by the revolted states. We believe that in so 
doing we fulfil the most sacred duty we owe to 
the constitution. 

"And to this, we solemly pledge the faith of 
our party and ourselves, until the war be end- 
ed and the constitution restored, as the su- 
preme law of the land, in every state of the 
Union." 

THE SAME PARTY IN" lSo3. 
The following, among others, was adopted 
at the Democratic nominating State Conven- 
tion, in 1863: 

"11. Resolved, That we are proud of the 
gallantry and devotion of our fellow citizens 
serving in the land and naval forces of the 
United States, and sympathize deeply with all 
their sacrifices of life, health and comfort. 
End as the war maj-, their place in history is 
one of glory — successful whenever beyond the 
reach of corrupt political influences surround- 
ing the administration, failing from no fault of 
their own whenever within the reach of those 
influences, equallj' brave and patriotic in eith- 
er fortune, they are the glorious brothers of 
our blood and will never make good the brutal 
boast that when they shall have suppressed re- 
bellion in the south, they will turn their arms 
against their brethren in the north " 

THE MINNESOTA DEMOCRACY'. 

We select the following from the platform 
adopted by the Democracy in State Conven- 
tion July 26, 1863: 

"6. That it is the duty of every citizen to 
obey the laws, and that however unconstitu- 



tional and oppressive and unjust the same may 
appear, he must submit thereto, until such 
laws are repealed, or declared null and void by 
the proper tribunals. 

"7. That we tender our army, and espe- 
cially the members of ouvminnesota regiments, 
our heartfelt thanks for their patriotic devo- 
tion to their country, and we also tender our 
sympathy to the survivors of the gallant dead, 
who have oflfered up their lives as a sacrifice for 
their country and won for themselves the ever- 
lasting gratitude of the nation." 

THE PENNSYLVANIA DEMOCRACY. 

The following was passed by the Democracy 
of the House of Representatives of Pennsyl- 
vania, against the united votes of the opposi- 
sition, in 1863: 

"That Pennsylvania will adhere to the Con- 
stitution and the Union as the best, it may be 
the last hope of popular freedom, and for all 
wrongs which may have been committed, or 
evils which may exist, will seek redress under 
the Constitution and within the Union, by the 
peaceful but powerful agency of the suffrage of 
a free people. 

"That while the General Assembly con- 
demns and denounces the faults of the Admin- 
istration, and the encroachments of the Aboli- 
tionists, it does also most thoroughly condemn 
and denounce the heresy of Secession, as un- 
warranted by the Constitution, and destructive 
alike of the security and perpetuity of govern- 
ment and of peace and liberty; the people of 
the State are opposed to any division of this 
Union; and will persistently exert their whole 
influence and power under the Constitution to 
maintain and defend it." 

THE ILLINOIS DEMOCRACY. 

The Democracy of the Legislature of Illin- 
ois, in 1S63, among others, adopted the fol- 
lowing : 

Resolved, That while we condemn and de- 
nounce the flagrant and monstrous usurpations 
by the Administration, and encroachments by 
Abolitionism, we equally denounce and con- 
demn the ruinous heresy of secession, as un- 
warranted by the Constitution, and destructive 
alike of the society and perpetuity of our gov- 
ernment, and the peace and liberty of the peo- 
ple." 

THE DEMOCRACY OF CONNECTICUT. 

The following we take from the Democratic 
platform of 1863 : 

" 2d. That while as citizens of Connecticut, 
we assert our devotion to the Constitution and 
the Union, and will hereafter, as we have 
heretofore, support with zeal and energy the 
authorities of the U. S. in the full constitu- 
tional exercise of their powers, we deliberate- 
ly aver that the liberties of the people are 
menaced by congressional and federal usurpa- 



800 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



tions, and can only be stopped by energetic ac- 
tion of State authority." 

THE DEMOCRACY OF INDIANA. 

The following is taken from the address of 
the Democratic members of the Legislature of 
Indiana, 1863 : 

" The Democratic party, if in power to-day, 
would put down this rebellion, and restore the 
Union as it was in six months, and by the hon- 
est and lawful method of subduing combat- 
tants, and protecting those not in arms against 
the government. It would make no war on 
States, and populations. It would ovcrthroiu 
the guilty rebel wherever found in arms. It 
TVOuld confiscate nothing that did not belong to 
a fighting traitor to the Union. * * 
A Democratic Administration would see that 
our victorious legions marched wherever there 
■was an armed foe to conquer." 

DEMOCRACY OF C0XDMBU3, OHIO. 

The following clearly defines the position of 
the Democi-acy everywhere. It is the first of 
a series of resolutions passed by the Democracy 
of Columbus, Ohio, in 1863: 

'■^Resolved, That the present war should be 
carried on to maintain the supremacy of the 
Constitution and the enforcement of all consti- 
tutional laws, and that when this is accomplish- 
ed, the war ought to cease." 

DEMOCRACY OF MADISON, WISCONSIN. 

The Democracy of Madison, Wisconsin, in 
July, 1863, met to celebrate the taking of 
Vicksburg, and adopted the following resolu 
tions: 

^^ Resolved, That the Democracy of the city 
of Madison and Dane county rejoice "with ex- 
ceeding great joy,-' at the surrender of Vicks- 
burg, the great Sebastopol of the Mississippi 
Valley, and that our thanks are due and here- 
by tendered to Major General Grant and the 
brave troops under his command for this glori- 
ous achievement — that while we tender our 
sympathies to those who have been wounded in 
battle, we embrace the mournful privilege of 
offering our sympathy and condolence to the 
friends and relatives of those brave men who 
have fallen while defending the Constitution 
and Union of our fathers. 

'■'■Resohud, That we award a like mede of 
praise and sympathy for sufferers in the Army 
of the Potomac, who have so bravely and so 
heroically defended the soil of Pennsylvania 
from the polution of rebel invasion. 

Resolved, In the spirit of the resolution pass- 
ed by the last Congress, that the war ought to be 
vigorously j^rosecuted for the establish-nent of 
the National authority, and the supremacy of 
the constitution and laws over every foot of our 
territory, and when that object is obtained the 
T^ar ought to cease " 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRACY. 

On the 28th of June, 1863, the Democratic 
and conservative members of Congress unani- 
mously passed the following, among other res- 
olutions: 

'■'•Resolved, That the Constitution and the 
Union and the laws must be preserved and 
maintained in all their proper and rightful su- 
premacy, and that the rebellion now in arms 
against them must be suppressed and put 
down, and that it is our duty to vote for all 
measures necessary and proper to that end." 

SAYINGS AND DOINGS OF LEADING DEMO- 
CRATS. 

Gov. Seymour''s Proclamation. 
The following we select from Gov. Sey- 
mour's proclamation, issued in response to the 
President's call for troops, October 29, 1863: 

"In this emergency it is the duty of all citi- 
zens to listen to the appeal put forth by the 
President, and to give efficient and cheerful 
aid in filling up the thinned ranks of our ar- 
mies. It is due to our brethren in the field, 
who have battled so heroically for the flag of 
our country, the Union of the states, and to 
uphold the Constitution, and prompt and vol- 
untary assistance should be sent to them in 
this moment of their peril. They went forth 
in the full confidence that they would at all 
times receive from their fellow citizens at 
home a generous and efficient support. 

"Every motive of pride and patriotism should 
impel us to give this by voluntary and cheer- 
ful contributions of men and money, and not 
by a forced conscription or coercive action on 
the part of the government. 

Gov. Seymour's Message. 
The following paragraph is taken from the 
message of Gov. Seymour to the New York 
Lngislature, January, 1863: 

"We must accept the condition of affairs as 
they stand. At this moment the fortunes of our 
country are influenced by the results of bat- 
tles. Our armies in the field jnust be supported. 
All constitutional demands of our General 
Government must be promptly responded to! 
But, war alone will not save the Union. The 
rule of action which is used to put down an or- 
dinary insurrection is not applicable to a wide- 
spread armed resistance of great communities. 
It is wildness and folly to shut our eyes to this 
truth. Under no circumatances can the division 
of the Union be conceded. We will put forth 
every exertion of power. AVe will hold out 
every inducement to the people of the South to 
return to their allegiance, consistent with 
honor. * 

"We will guarantee them every right, every 
consideration, demanded by the Constitution, 
and by that fraternal regard which must pre- 
vail in a common country. But we can never 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK 



301 



voluntarihj consent to the breaking up of the 
Union of these states, or the destruction of the 
Constitution." 

Gov. Parker^s Proclamation. 
Oq tie 22d of October, 1863, Governor Par- 
ker, of New Jersey, issued a proclamation in 
response to the President's call for troops, in 
which occurs the following: 

"I earnestly call upon every citizen of this 
state to use every effort to raise these troops. 
The time for work is short: but, if the people 
of New Jersey, who have hitherto never fal 
tered in the discharge of duty, will, unitedly 
and in the proper spirit, at once enter upon it, 
with a determination not to fail, they will suc- 
ceed. 

"Our armies should be largely reinforced. A 
crushing blow at the armed power of the re- 
bellion, if followed by wise, just and concilia- 
tory counsels, will open the door to the peace 
which we so much desire; and which has thus 
far eluded us." 

lion. II. L. Palrner^s Speecli. 

The Hon. H. L. Palmer, late Democratic 
candidate for Governor of AVisconsin, presided 
at a patriotic meeting at Milwaukee. In ad- 
dressing the vast assemblage he used the fol- 
lowing language: 

"A most gigantic and stupendously wicked 
rebellion has arisen to destroy, with bloody 
and raricidal hands, this fair fabric raised at 
the cost of our father's blood; and now we are 
called upon to put it down and save our loved 
land. I trust we stand here to-day as Ameri- 
cans oulj', and that we shall not fail in effect- 
ive measures to answer the call of our country 
and to send succor to our brothers in arms and 
peril in the South." 

Et tu Vallandigham. 

Even V vLLANDiGUAM, who has been so un- 
mercifully and fouly villified as a traitor, ut- 
tered the following patriotic pentiments in re- 
ply to a charge of the New York Times that he 
counselled resistance to law: 

'■New York, March S, lSO-3. 
"To the Editor of the New TorJc Times: 

"Allow me to say that the statement of your 
reporter that I denied that we owed any obedi- 
ence to the Conscription act, and your own 
that I counselled resistance to it by the people 
of the North, are both incorrect. On the con- 
trary, / expressly eounselled the trial of all 
questions of latu beforeour judicial courts., and 
all questions of politics before the tribunal of 
the ballot-box- I am for obedience to all 
Laws — obedience by the people and by men in 
power also. I am for a free discussion of all 
questions of law before our judicial courts, 
and all questions of politics before the tribunal 
•of the ballot-box. I am for a free discussion 



of all measures and laws whatsoever, as in 
former times, hnt for forcibleresistance to none. 
The ballot-box, and not the cartridge-box, is 
the instrument for reform and revolution which 
I would have resorted to. Let this be under' 
stood. 

"C. L. VALLANDIGHAM." 

Mr. Vallandigham in Congress. 

The Abolitionists for months paraded through 
their columns what purported to be an extract 
from a speech of Mr. V. in Congress, that he 
would not vote a dollar for the war, &c. Here 
is what he did say : 

" For my own part, sir, while I would not 
in the beginning have given a dollar or a man 
to commence this war, I am willing— ?io it' that 
ice are in the midst of it without any act of 

ours — TO VOTE JUST AS MANY MEN AND JTI8T 
AS MUCH MONET AS MAY BE NECESSARY TO 
PROTECT AND DEFEND THE FFDERAL GOVERN- 
MENT. IT WOULD BE BOTH TREASON 
AND MADNESS NOW TO DISARM THE 
GOVERNMENT IN THE PRESENCE OF 
AN ENEMY OF TWO HUNDRED THOU- 
SAND MEN IN THE FIELD AGAINST 
IT !" 

Democrats Rejoice at our Victories. 
The following short extract from an editorial 
in the Chicago Post of July 11, 1S63, speaks 
volumes of praise for the Democracy : 

" The best answer to Gen. Singleton's un 
conditional peace speeches is to be found in 
the universal rejoicing by the democratic pa- 
pers of the country, over the victories of 
Meade and Grant. In these rejoicings we have 
an impression of the true democratic senti- 
ment. They are unconditional rejoicings. — 
They are not qualified by regrets that the war 
is not a constitutional one, or that it is a bar- 
barous one, or that it is a war to overturn and 
destroy the liberties of the people ; but the re- 
joicings are earnest and universal that the 
armed rebels against the Constitution and the 
Union have been beaten, defeated and cut to 
pieces by the troops of the United States. It 
is claimed that these victories are as honorable 
and as brilliant as though they were gained 
over any other enemy seeking to destroy the 
American Union. In these victories the dem- 
ocratic papers, and the democratic masses eve- 
rywhere see a hope that the Administration 
will learn and profit by the lesson that armed 
rebellion cannot be crushed except by force of 
arms : that paper proclamations and cruel laws 
only serve to exasperate the enemy, who is to 
be put down by blows and offers of pardon up- 
on pi'oper submission." 

TESTIMONY OF OUR OPPONENTS. 

The New York Times, after months of idle 
and slanderous denunciations of the Demo- 
cratic party, was compelled to make the fol- 
lowing admission: 



302 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



"We have never doubted tlia'- the great body 
of the Democratic party are for preserving the 
Union and crushing the rebellion, which 
alone threatens its existence. We do'not doubt 
that they look upon a vigorous prosecution of 
the war as the only means by which that result 
can be brought about. And, in spite of all the 
efforts that maybe made to drive or seduce the 
Democratic party from that position, we be- 
lieve it will hold it with fidelity and firmness, 
and will insist upon the adoption of that policy 
by this administration and by any other that 
may succeed it. We arc well aware that the 
Democratic party does not indorse very many 
of the acts of the administration. We have no 
right to ask such an indorsement at its hands. 
Upon any of the details of administration, 
upon any of the measures which the President 
and Congress may see fit to adopt, that party 
has a perfect right to its own opinions. It may 
with perfect propriety protest against the pro- 
clamation of emancipation, the policy of arbi- 
trary arrests, the enlistment of negro soldiers 
and any other measure of the administration." 

The Philadelphia Press, the court organ of 
the administration, thus slurs at a Democratic 
resolution: 

"The Lancaster county copperheads had a 
convention, a few days ago, and adopted a 
number of platitudes, which they called reso- 
lutions. The following is one of the most 
precious of the number: 

"Eesolved, That the soldiers fighting in our armies mer- 
it the warmest thanks of the nation. Living, they shall 
know a nation's gratitude; wounded, a nation's care; and 
dying, they shall live in our niemori,'.;, l j touch posterity 
to honor patriotsanlM- • ■ > i^.-iicod thtir lives 
■upon theirooii'.itry's . t •. 

We copy tills especially as a compliment. 

MR. SEWARD ENDORSES OUR POSITION. 

We find in a cotemporary the following reso- 
lution, said to have been adopted by a political 
Convention in the state of Maryland: 

'■^Resolved, That there is no such thing in 
in times of rebellion as supporting the Nation- 
al Government without supporting the Admin- 
istration of the National Government; that the 
administration of the National Government is 
confided by the Constitution to the President, 
assisted in his several spheres of duty by the 
administrative departments, and therefore the 
measures of the President and the general 
policy of the Administration should, under the 
present trying circumstances of the country, 
be sustained by all true patriots in a spirit of 
generous confidence, and not thwarted by cap- 
tious criticism or factious opposition." 

As a full reply to this we present the follow- 
inc from the official dispatch of Secretary Se- 
Ward to our Minister at London, of November 
10, 1862 : 

" From whatever cause it has happened, po- 
litical debates during the present year have 



resumed, in a considerable degree, the normal 
character, and while loj'al republicans have 
adhered to the new banner of the Union par- 
ty, the democratic party has rallied and made 
a vigorous canvass with a view to the recovery 
of its former political ascendency. Loyal dem- 
ocrats in considerable numbers, retaining the 
aame of democracy from habit, and not be- 
cause they oppose the Union, are classified by 
he other party as 'Opposition.' It is not ne- 
ce sary for the information of our representa- 
tives abroad that I should descend into any ex- 
amination of the relative principles or policies 
of the two parties. It will suffice to say that 
while there may be men of doubtful political 
wisdom and virtue in each party, and while 
there may be differences of opinion between ■ 
the two parties as to the measures best calcu- fl 
lated to preserve the Union and restore its au- ■ 
thority, yet it is not to be inferred that either 
party, or any considerable portion of the peo- 
ple of the loyal States, is disposed to accept 
disunion under any circumstances, or upon 
any terms. It is rather to be understood that j 
the people have become so confident of the sta- I 
bility of the Union that partizau combinations 1 
are resuming their sway here, as they do in 
such cases in all free countries. In this coun- 
try, especially, it is a habit not only entirely J 
consistent with the Constitution, hut even es- I 
sential to its stability^ to regard the adminis' ' 
tration at any time existing as distinct and sep- 
arable from the government itself^ and to cart- 
vass the proceedings of the one without the 
thought of disloyally to the other. We might 
possibly have had quicker success in suppress- 
ing the insurrection if this habit could have 
rested a little longer in abeyance : but, on the 
other hand, we are under obligations to save 
not only the integrity or unity of the country, 
but also its inestimable and precious Constitu- 
tion. No one can safely say that the resump- 
tion of the previous popular habit does not 
tend to this last and most important consum- 
mation, if, at the same time, as we confident- 
ly expect, the Union itself shall be saved." 

JUDGE PAINE AGREES WITH THE DEMOCRACY 

Judge Paine, a most intensely radical abo- 
litionist, and one of the judges of the Wisconsin 
Supreme Court, addressed a "Union" meeting 
at Madison, Wisconsin, May 14, 1863, and we 
take the following from his remarks, as report- 
ed in the iS^aie Journal (Radical) of the fol- 
lowing day: 

"The speaker thought the President posses- 
sed all nfcessary soioers under the constitution^ 
and that he should be governed by that instru- 
ment in war as well as inpeace. He agreed ivitk 
the Democrats in this respect.^' 

GOVERNOR SEYMOUR COMPLIMENTED. 

Gov. Seymour has been the best abused man 
in all the nation. No term could be heaped up- 
on him too vile for the tastes' and appetites of 
the radical press. But the following will show 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK. 



503 



that he stands in a much more patriotic light 
before the world for his prompt responses, than 
does Gov. Andrew, who hesitated — held back, 
and was long months in doing what Gov. S. ac- 
complished in a few hours. The following cor- 
respondence will explain itself: 

On the 15th of June, 1863, Mr. Staxton 
telegraphed to Gov. S. as follows: 

"To bis Excellency, Gov. Seymour: 

•'The movements of the rebel forces in Vir- 
ginia are now sufficiently developed to show 
that General Lee, with his whole army, is 
moving forward to invade the states of Mary- 
land and Pennsylvania, and other states. 

"The President, to repel the invasion 
promptly, has called upon Ohio, Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, and Western Virginia, for one hun- 
dred thousand militia for six months, unless 
sooner discharged. It is important to have 
the largest possible force in the least possible 
time, and if other states would furnish militia 
for a short time, to be credited in the draft, it 
would greatly advance the object. AVill you 
please inform me immediately, if, in answer to 
a special call of the President, you can raise 
and forward say twenty thousand militia as 
volunteers, without bounty, to be credited in 
the draft of your state, or what number you 
can possibly raise? 

E. M. STANTON, Sec'yofWar. 

Governor S. promptly sent an affirmative 

answer, and in a few hours several regiments 

were under marching orders. The "roads"' 

did "swarm." On the same day he received 

the following "thanks:" 

"Washington, June 1.5, ISGo. 
Governor Seymour : ■ 

"The President desires me to return his 
thanks, with those of the Department, for 
your prompt response. A strong movement of 
your city regiments to Philadelphia would be a 
very encouraging movement, and do great 
good in giving strength in that state. 

"EDWIN M. STAXTOX, 
"Secretary of War." 

The following telegrams, sent at different 
intervals, under all the circumstances of abuse 
on Governor S., is a better eulogy than our pen 
could frame: 

"Washington, June 19, 1S63. 
"To Adsctant General Spragce: 

"The President directs me to return his 
thanks to his Excellency Governor Seymour, 
and his staff, for their energetic and prompt 
action. Whether any further force is likely to 
be required will be communicated to you to- 
morrow, by which time it is expected the 
movements of the enemy will be more fully de- 
veloped. 

"EDWIN M. STANTON, 

"Secretary of War. 

"John T. Sprague, Adjutant General." 



War Department, Washington Ciiv, > 
June 27, 1863. J 

"Dear Sir: — I cannot forbear expressing 
to you the deep obligation I feel for the prompt 
and candid support you have given to the Gov- 
ernment in the present emergency. The ener- 
gy, activity, and patriotism you have exhibited 
I may be admitted personally and officially to 
acknowledge, without arrogating any personal 
claims on my part to such service, or to any 
service whatever. 

"I shall be happy always to be esteemed 
your friend, 

"EDWIN M. STANTON. 
"His Excellency, Horatio Setmour." 

What, a friend to the '•'•friend''^ of the New 
York rioters? Incredible! 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

MISCELLANEOUS FACTS AND FIGURES. 

Political sine qua mm of Wisconsin Legielnture.,. Still re- 
fuse to yield an incli....N. Y. Round Table on Lincoln's 
Amnesty Proclamation. ..Two Millions in Men. ...Three 
Millions in Money. ..Is a National Debt a National Bless- 
ing.. .A Negro Nobility. ..Bffects of a High Tariff.. .Yicks- 
liurg Discipline. ..Will the Rebellion succeed. ..1,685,000 
Democratic Votes in the Loyal States....Gross Outragehy 
Abolitionists at Boscobel, Wisconsin. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

The following not having been convenient for 
use under their proper heads, we insert them 
here, without attempting to link them in argu- 
mentative form : 



WILL LITSEN TO NO PROPOSITION FOR PEACE. 

The following remarkable declaration intro- 
duced by a Mr. Starks in the Wisconsin As- 
sembly, Jan. 21, '64, and adopted by all the 
Republican votes of that body, shows to what 
extremes we are drifting : 

'•'■Resolved ly the Assembly., the Senate con- 
curring' That as our country, and the very ex- 
istence of tne best Government ever instituted 
by man, are imperilled by the most causeless 
and wicked rebellion the world has ever seen 
believing, as we do, that the only hope of sav- 
ing the country and preserving the government 
is in the power of the sword — we are for the 
most vigorous prosecution of the war, until the 
constitution and laws shall be enforced and 
obeyed in all parts of the United States, and 
to that end we oppose any armistice, interven- 
tion^i mediation or proposition for peace, from 
any source whatever, so long as the rebels are 
found in arms against the government, and we 
ignore all party lines, names and issues, and 
recognize but two parties, patriots and tritors. 

To show how they "ignored all par <^ lines," 
we copy the fourth and last of the series: 
'■^Resolved, That we recognize in Abraham 



304 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



Lincoln, President of the United States, a 
statesman of liberal and enlarged views, great 
ability, and unswerving integrity and if the 
"wishes ot the people of Wisconsin are complied 
■with by the 5fational Union Convention that 
assembles to nominate candidates for the Pres- 
idency Abraham Lincoln will again be nomi- 
nated." 

This is ignoring party ■with a vengeance. It 
shows that the supporters of Mr. Lincoln are 
pledged against any peace whatever — and of 
course against any Union. This is the logic of 
their conduct. 

■WHAT LINCOLN'S PKOCLAMATION WILL DO. 

[From the New York Round Table. (Rep.) 
"Not only the overthrow of the rebellion as 
a military power, but the complete subjugation 
of the Sonthern peoi:)le, until they are so ut- 
terly crushed and humbled as to be willing to 
accept life on any terms, is the essential con- 
dition of the President's scheme. It may 
therefore prolong the war; and after the war 
is substantially ended, it may defer the day of 
reunion and each. It cannot be doubted that 
the President contemplates all this, and that 
in his mind, the removal of slavery being con- 
sidered the most essential condition of the most 
desirable and permanent peace, he felt justi- 
fied in incurring great evils for the sake of a 
greater ultimate good. 

"In plain English, we are informed, that in 
order to abolish slavery, the war is to be pro- 
longed, and the day of the restoration of the 
Union deferred." 

TWO MILLIONS IN MEN — THREE MILLIONS IN 
MONEY. 

Here are the several calls of the President 

for forces, not including naval: 

April 16, 1861 75,000 

May 4, 1861 04,748 

From Julv to December, 1861 500,000 

July 1, 1862 300,000 

August 4, 1862 300,000 

Draft, summer of 1863 300,000 

February 1, 1864 500,000 

Total 2,030,748 

The last call is supposed to include one of 
the previous calls.' 

The known cost of all this it is impossible 
fully to state, but the following figures show 
the loans and liabilities authorized by various 
acts of Congress, as given by the New York 
presses: 

Loan of 1842 S'242,621 

loan of 1847 , 9,415,250 

Loan of 1848 8,908,341 

Texas indemnity loan of 1850 3,461,000 

Loan of 1858 20,000,000 

Loan of 1860 7,622,000 

Loaftof 1861 18,415,000 

Treasury notes, March, '61 512,900 

Oregon war loan, 1861 1,016,000 

Another loan of 1861 50,000,000 



Three years treasury notes 139,679,000 

Loan of August, 1861 320,000 

Five-twenty loan 400,000,000 

Temporary leans 104,933,103 

Certificates of indebtedness 156,619,437 

Unclnimed dividends 114,115 

Demand treasury notes 500,000 

Legal tenders, 1862 397,767,114 

Legal tcu.le's, 1863 104,969,937 

Pustd and fractional currency 50,000,000 

Old treasury notes outstanding 118,000 

Ten-forty bonds 900,000,000 

Interest-bearing treasury notes 500,000,000 

Total §2,774,912,818 

The sums paid by states, cities, towns and 
individuals are not included in this record, and 
must r'jach many hundred millions more. 

IS A NATIONAL DEBT A BLSSSING. 

We have in a former portion of this work, 
shown that the early Federals, who were for a 
semi-monarchial government, advocated a na- 
tional debt, as the foundation of a national 
privileged aristocracy. A Washington corres- 
pondent of the Milwaukee Sentinel, January, 
1864, thus shadows forth the predilections of 
the present monarchial party: 

"Great wars make nations rich as a people, 
although the government may be poor and in 
debt. A large national debt is a bond cf 
strength, especially if the evidences of that 
debt drawing interest, are held by the masses 
of the people. Such has been the result with 
England. From the day that she began to 
spend hundreds of millions among her people 
in carrying on her continental wars, did she 
begin todevelope her resources and increase in 
wealth and power. So it will be with the 
United States." 

And, to carry out the figure to its legitimate 
proportions, they writer should have added, 
that with his aristocratical millennium comes 
also the millions of paupers. 

A NEGRO NOBILITY. 
(From the Albany (N. Y.) Argus and Atlas.) 

" This country will have no true dignity^^^ 
said Fred Douglas in a recent speech to the 
Abolitionists, "till the negro is entitled to 
vote and hold office." 

The negroes, says Vandal Phillips, are our 
"nobility," and we must divide the lands of 
the South among them, as William the Con- 
queror partitioned England among the Norman 
Lords. 

All that is very fine — " dignity and nobili- 
ty" — but Sambo wants somothing jjractical, 
and the Administration proposes to give it to 
him. 

We quote an illustrative incident : 

"The colored people of Philadelphia are before the Vfai 
Department for contracts for Quartermaster's supplies, 
David Browser and Jacob C. White had an interview with 
Secretary Stanton on Friday, and offered to engage to de- 
liver in thirty, sixty and ninety days shirts, drawers, hav- 
ersacks and blouses, to the extent of 300,000 of either. 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



305 



They receive! asiiirances that the colored people should 
be placed here:ifti-r upon the same footing with whites, in 
the matter of cuutracts." 

" 'Contracts' that is the word in which lies 
the real patent of nobility — then it is 'dignity!' 

"When the Haytian monarchy was formed, 
the black chiefs took the tittles ©f Duke of 
Lemonade, Count Marmalade and the Marquis 
of Molasses We see looming in the distance 
our new nobility — Sir Sambo Shoddy, Count 
CufFee Codfish and the Marquis of Mulemeat." 

EFFECTS OF A HIGH TARIFF. 

The New York News, in its money article, 
gives some statistics to show the effect of high 
prices upon the quantity of certain articles 
consumed. The following table shows the 
prices of coffee and the quantity taken for con- 
sumption in the last three years: 

Price. Lbs. Lbs pci" head 

1861 14c 187.045,786 9ft)s. boz. 

'1862 2Ic 88,989,911 41t)s. 7oz. 

1863 -'.Ic 79,719,041 3 lbs. 1.5 oz. 

Thus, the consumption per head, has declin- 
ed from 9 lbs 6oz. to 3 lb 15 oz. The 9 lbs. 6 oz. 
cost in 1861. §1 31, and the 3 lbs. 15 oz. in 
1863, cosr .$1 22. Thus the consumer paid 
nearly as much money, greenbacks and stamps, 
as in 1861, but got 5 lbs. 7 oz less coffee for it. 
The same comparison is made as to molasses : 

i';ic". Gallons. Per bead. 

1S62 29 cts 62,008,400 3 g.ils.,1 pints. 

1803 44ct3 37,569,088 1 gall. ,7 pints. 

The cost of the three gallons and one pint 
per individual in 1862, was 92. and of the one 
gallon and seven pints in 1863, 82 cents. 

This is not the worst raid of high tariffs. 

VIiKSBURG DISCIPLINE. 

IlEADQCAr.-:i;ii^ 17th A. C, Dept. of the Te\x., | 
Vicksburg, Miss., Dec. 29, 1863./ 
General Oru'r.< So. 51. 

The following circular has been issued by 
the Major General Commanding, and is now 
published iu general orders for the informa- 
tion and guidance of all parties interested, 
who will make a note of it, and govern them- 
selves accordingly: 

Circular. 

IlELDliUARTERS 17t11 ARMY CoIlPS, ) 

Provost Marshal's Office. \- 
Vicksburg, Miss., Dec. 27'h, 1853. j 
The foliowibj; named persons, Mi,ss Kate Barnett, Miss 
Ella Parnett, Miss Laura Latham, .Miss Ella Ma'-Un and 
Mrs. Moore, having acted disrespectfully toward the Prcsi- 
] ident and Government of the United States, and having 
insulted the officers, soldiers and loyal citizens of the llni- 
; ted States who had assembled at the Episcopal Church in 
Vicksburg, on Christmas day, for Divine service, by ah- 
I rux>tly leavinij .<aid church nt that point in the service 
where the olbciating minister prays for the welfare of the 
^ President of the United States and all othe'-s in authority, 
are hereby banished, and will leave the Federal linei with- 
in forly-eight hous, under penalty of inr> s( '..leit. 

Hereafter all pe. suns, male or f -male, by word, d od or 
implication, do insult or b'uow disrespect to the President, 



Govoniment or flag of the United States, or to any officers 
or soldiers of the United States, upon matters of a nation- 
al character, shall be fined, banished or imprisoned, ac- 
conling to the grossness of the offense. 
By order of Major General McPherson. 

JAMKS WILSON, 
Lt. Col. and Pro. Mar, 17i.h A. C. 
W.T. Clap-K, A. a. G. 

If these female persons did really intend to 
show disrespect to Mr. Lincoln, that is one 
thing, but if it was really a "military neces- 
sity" that caused them to leave, why, that is 
another thing. The question is, how did the 
gallant Provost Marshal know the true cause 
of the necessity? 

WILL TEE REBELLION SUCCEED? 

yy what the Abolition disanionists say be 
true, no power on earth can prevent its suc- 
cess, and let us see why. 

They declare that all who vote the Demo- 
cratic ticket arc disloyal (o our Government — 
"sympathisers" with the rebellion, &c. If 
this be true, let us see how strong the rebels 
are. The vote of 1860 developed about seven 
inhabitants to every voter in the land. 

Now, there ara in the loyal states the fol- 
lowing numbers that vote the Democratic tick- 
et, which will not probably vary 5,000 either 
yfay — near enough quite, to meet the argument: 

Catifornia 50,(J0U 

Connecticut 40,000 

Delaware 8,000 

Illinois 145,000 

Indiana 125,000 

Iowa 50,000 

Kentucky 88,000 

Maine 61,000 

Maryland 45,000 

Massachusetts 40,000 

Michigai 60,000 

Minnesota 12,000 

Missouii 100,000 

New Hampshire 40,000 

New Jersey ." 00,000 

New Yori 285,000 

Ohio 187,000 

Oregon 8,000 

Ponnsvlvania 254,000 

Khode Island 8,000 

Ve-mont 12,000 

Wisconsin 65,000 

SI, 685, 000 
Here, then, right in the loyal states, are one 
million six hundred and eighty-five thousand 
votes that "sympathise with the rebellion," ac- 
cording to Abolition say-so. Multiply this by 7, 
and you have 11,795,000 persons here at the 
North who are in "open sympathy with the reb- 
els." Addthisvast number to the 10,000,000 in 
the rebel states, and it arives 21,795,000 "trai- 
tors," which, subtracted from the 30,000,000 of 
the entire whitepopulationof the whole Union, 
and it leaves only 8,205,000 "loyal" people to 



306 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



contend against over twenty-one millions of 
"secesh." 

This argument is not ours. It is only the 
presentation of the Abolition '-argument," and 
the bare statement shows the malicious absur- 
dity of the Abolition asservation. 

Let the Administration once throw out the 
•'copperhead" element, and it will find itself 
in a wofully decimated dilemma. 

DISGRACEFUL OURTAGE. 

The following from our correspondent at 
Boscobel, gives evidence of another of those 
disgraceful scenes, of which the murder of poor 
Bellinger last fall was but a prelude. It is the 
direct fruits of those bloodthirsty sentiments 
uttered by bloodthirsty Wilson, in Maine — by 
bloodthirsty Stanton, to the New York meet- 
ing — by bloodthirsty Jim Lane, in his blood- 
thirsty speech in Washington, and of the blood- 
thirsty letters and resolutions which were 
manufactured " to order" in the army, and 
sent North to garnish the bloodthirsty columns 
of the bloodthirsty radical press. If such 
teachings, and the inevitable results of such 
teachings, which have disgraced our land, do 
not deluge the North in blood, we are mistak- 
en. It is re- enacting the bloody scenes that 
ushered in the French Reign of Terror. — 
Those who have set these diabolisms in mo- 
tion, aid and abet them, need not be surprised 
to see and feel their counterparts, when for- 
bearance ceases to be a virtue. It is not in 
human nature for human beings to stand eve- 
rything. But to the letter : 

Tovrs OF Hickory Grove, Grant Co., Feb. 11, IS&l. 
Editor of the Patriot, Madison, Wis. 

Dear Sir: — On last Satunlay, the 6th of February, one 
of the most disgraceful things occurred in the village of 
Boscobel, Grant county, that any civilized community 
ought to be ashamed of. Some returned soldiers, home on 
furlough, headed by the citizens, even a Justice of the 
Peace, went around tciwn and brought up peaceable citi- 
zens, made them take the oath of allegiance, and if they 
would not do it, they got a pounding. For what did they 
make them take the oatb :' For voting last fall the Dem- 
ocratic ticket, or having in their house the Chicago Times. 
The night.bofore they broke in windows and doors.pounded 
men and abused women when they could j^ot find their 
husbands, and even abused dumb beasts belongingto what 
they call "Copperheads," by beating them with clubs. 

A pretty pass things have come to that a man's hfe nor 
his property arej safe under the law that rules our land, 
and a man cannot vote as he chooses under the present 
Administration. If the Union party (as they call them- 
selves) is the majority or they cant speak, or even r»ad a 
paper the Administration allows to be printed and circu- 
lated, such works being countenanced by the citizens »f 
Boscobel. The loyal men of the town and country around 
feeUng indignant at such works will niit hereafter patron- 
ize them with their trade no more than they arc compell- 
ed toby actual necessity. 

The writer of this was an eye witness to a good deal of 
the proceedings, wliich can be testified to by a good many, 
if necessary. S. C. 



The Grant Co. Herald, received last evening, 
February 10, 1864, actually confirms all our 
correspondent has said, in nearly two columns 
of chuckling doggerel. AVe clip the following 
from that sheet, which shows that while no 
pretence is set up that any provocation was 
given by the Democrats of Boscobel, except 
their having voted the Democratic ticket, the 
editor indulges in a "flow of soul." at the "fun 
for the boys," but death to Democrats: 

Boscobel Scenery — A Spec of the Spectre. — The other 
daj' certain amusing scenes were acted at Boscobel, scenes 
that served well for sport, as in the fable of the boys and 
frogs, but which maj' be regretted at a soberer moment; 
for blossoms these are that promise no good fruit. And if 
fruits spring therefrom which make bitter the future joys 
of peace, well may we be cheered by the wise few at least 
for casting a frost that shall chill and hinder another crop. 

Boys of the army, the future masters of our country, 
see to it that in Boscobel all such work as that the other 
day shall now be held as finished, not to be resumed at any 
future time. 

And, in another column, the editor says : 

lIon..T. Allen Barber came home from Madison on fur- 
lough the last of the closing week, lie thinks the legis- 
lature will be- a pi ofitable one, and the work excellent, 
when the committees report. Mr. Barber was very much 
struck with the manner the laws and justice were being 
administered at Boscobel, while stopping there on Friday 
and Saturday, an account of which we have written OMt. 

Now, if this does not do great injustice to 
" Hon. J. Allen Barber," it makes him out as 
delighted {'•'■very much struck") with the 
"/wsiice" administered by the "boys" — that 
is, Mr. Hon. J. Allen Barber must have been 
delighted to see Democrats knocked down with 
clubs, for no crime but having voted the 
Democratic ticket. And then, suppose them 
to have committed the greatest of crimes, what 
right had these soldiers, led on by bloodthirs- 
ty Abolitionists, to take matters into their own 
hands? Does the " Hon. J. Allen Barber," 
who is now aspiring to a seat on the Bench, 
where he may administer the laws, delight in 
this ? Impossible ! We cannot believe it, but 
if it be true, with what grace (if he should be 
elected) can he sit on the bench and try the 
murdereous individuals for their crimes? 

We hesitate not to utter our belief that un- 
less the President of the United States shall 
cause stringent orders to be issued against 
such bloody raids on peaceable citizens, that 
we shall see bloody times in the North. For 
it cannot be expected that people will calmly 
submit to be murdered (as in the case of Bel- 
linger), and knocked down and beaten with 
clubs (as in Boscobel)— rode on rails (as in 
Green county, by the mobocrats there), and 
not rise up in self defense. If it be the pur- 
pose of the Powers that be to murder and ex- 



SCRAPS FROM MY"SCRAP.BOOK. 



807 



terminate Democrats, let them act honorable 
about it, at least. Let them give fair warning. 
30 that Democrats may prepare to "sellout" as 
dearly as possible. If the threats that have 
been uttered by officials, from members of Mr. 
Lincoln's Cabinet down to the lowest grade of 
political Roughs, are to be carried out, let the 
cotintry be prepared for it at once— let the 
worst come noiv. For us, in the language of 
the noble Patrick Henry, we say, "give us 
liberty or give us death." The liberty to 
think and vote as we please, is as sacred as 
life itself. 

These evidences of an approaching Reign of 
Terror, furnish the most gloomy aspect of all 
our troubles — and if the Administration does 
not desire to force a terrible bloody conflict 
here at the North, it should take immediate 
steps to check these certain causes. It can do 
it, and if it will not, then the country may as 
well make up its mind for the worst, and every 
Democrat prepare to avail himself of the first 
law of nature. 

We trust that Gov. Lewis will use his power 
to prevent these certain provocations to disor- 
der and anarchy. 

HENRY clay's PROPHECY FULFILLED. 

In speaking of the abolitionists. Mr. Clay 
said in the Senate: 

To the agency of their power of persuasion, they now 
propose to substitute the power of the ballot box; and he 
must be blind to what is passing before us, who does not 
perceive that the inevitable tendency of their proceedings 
is, if these should be found insufficient, to invoke, finally, 
the more potent powers of the bayonet. 

This prophecy has been fulfilled to the letter. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

FRAUDS, PLUXDERIXG, SHODDY AND TAXES. 

Poetical applications. ..General Remarks on. ..Scions of the 
old Puritanical stock. ..New York Custom House Frauds 
...Testimony and Facts. ..Conclusions of committee... 
Van Wyck's speech on the Development of Astounding 
Frauds. ..Colleotor Barney and his subs. ..John P. Hale 
on corruptions of the Departments. ..Cattle contracts... 
Cummings' Agency. ..Charter of the Catalino... General 
Mania for stealing. ..Horse contracts. ..Contract Broker- 
age. ..Treasury Department Frauds. ..Fire Arms Frauds 
...George D. Morgan's Operations. ..Army Transporta- 
tion. ..Mr. Dawes on Frauds... A Refreshing Expose... A 
New York Paper on A'au Wyek's Report. ..The "Re- 
cord of Infamy" by the Ohio State Journal... 
Members of Congress take ahand in. ..Simmons, of Rhode 
Island, takes 550,000.. .Jack Hale takes a "fee". ..The 
Horse Swindle. ..Frauds in the Navy Yard. ..The Book 
Swindle. ..The Grimes Committee. ..Frauds, Rascality, 
and Perjury. ..The Vessel Charter Frauds. ..The Com- 
mittee's Conclusions. ..The Mileage Steal. ..Stupendous 
Frauds in New York. ..Swindling at Cairo.. .A Defaul- 
ter Caught. ..General Wilcox on Contractors. ..Mr. 
Dawes on Larcenies. ..Millions upon Millions Wasted... 



Beauties of Kepublican Retrenchment. ..Fremont'sFrauds 
...Marshal T.aman .Mr. Lincoln's Right Bower. ..Honest 
Old Abe .ind Simon help their Friends... Jlrs.Grimsley, the 
President's .■-ister-in-Uw, figures in Fraud Investigations 
...Letters from Old Abe'and Cameron to Major McKinstry 
...Congress CensTires...thats all. ..The Holt and Owen In- 
vestigation. ..The Splendor of Fremont's operations... 
Frauds! Frauds! ! Frauds! ! ! on every hand. ..General Re- 
marks. ..Holy Ministers and Stolen I'ictures... Swindling 
the Soldiers. ..Hundreds of Millions Swindled. ..We are all 
Mortgaged ..Our National Debt. ..The Means to pay it... 
General Remarks. ..The Currency Question... Stand frosa 
Under. ..General Remarks on Republican Thieves and 
Plunderers. 



FRAI'DS — PUBLIC PLUXDERIXG — STEALINGS, 
SHODDY AND TAXES. 

"Corruption is a tree, whose branches are 
Of an immeasurable length — they spread 
Ev'ry where; and the dew that drops from Heaven- 
Hath infected some stools and chairs of State." 

{^Beaumont. 

"Hence, wretched nation! all thy woes arise, 
Avow'd corruption — licensed perjuries — 
Eternal taxes — tre.aties for a day — 
Despots that rule and people that obey." 

[Lord LyttUion — Ecvised.. 

".■Vnd though bare merit might in Rome, appear 
The strongest plea for merit — not so here; 
The 'loyal' form their judgments in another way — 
And they will best succeed, who best C9.npay; 
Those who'd gain a place 'mong 'loyal' tribes, 
Must add to their petitions the force of hrihes.^' 

[Chu rehil — Pa raphrased. 
"Our supple tribes repress their patriot throats. 
And ask no questions huttheprice of votes>" 

[Vr. Johnson. 

"Common thieves must hang, but he that puts 
Into his overgorged and bloated puree. 
The nation's wealth: wrung by pinching war. 
Is a shoddy hero, and escapes." 

iCowper's Task — Jievised. 

" 'Tis pleasant, purchasing the 'loyal' creatures, 

And all are to be sold, if you consider 

Their passions, and aredext'rous — some by features 

Are bought up, others by cotton, or rather shoddy — 

Some by a place — all both soul and body — 

"The most by ready cash — each has his price 

From kicks to greenbacks, according to his vice." 

[Byron— Improved. 
* * * "Is there not some chosen curse. 
Some hidden thunders in the stores of Heaven, 
Red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man. 
Who owes his greatness to his country's ruin!'' 

" Honor among thieves," to use a phrase of 
the prevailing nomenclature, is " played out." 
It used to be considered dishonorable to com- 
mit a robbery at a funeral, but now, while at- 
tending the nation's funeral, the pall bearers 
— chaplains — grave diggers — mourners — all. 
have plied the art of theft and robbery on their 
disabled victim. From plebian to patrician, 
from beggar ta nabob — from the non-commis- 
sioned civilian to the generals, (to say nothing 
of other officers,) Representatives, Senators 
and Cabinet Ministers. Shoddy takes the 
lead, while contractors' pockets drip with the 
fat of honest toil. "Loyalty' is cheap, and 
is guaged by the rise and fall of Greenbacks ! 
Patriotism is founded on contracts, and the 
devotee of civil liberty chalks his entire creed 
on the margin of his commission. The con- 



308 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



fidence man has turned his attention to pro- 
viding the government with horses, when some 
accomplice watches the moment they are "con- 
demned," to place them in some neighboring 
stall to undergo the process of " dojnnr/,'^ to 
be again sold for army use, at a round price, 
and so on to the end of that chapter. Officers 
who have met with the misfortune of not 
having their merits appreciated, take the 
stump to win their spui's, and spout radical 
nonsense as a quid pro quo for having their 
commissions renewed, or write "anti-Copper- 
head" letters to win promotion. Grave Sena- 
tors sell their votes, and call it legal fees — 
Cabinet Ministers heap upon the bending backs 
of their cousins, nephews, partizans and 
" friends," the two per cent. 's of contracts by 
the hundred millions, with the "margin" in 
the bargain. Even one of the household of 
His Excellency, the President, holds a letter 
of credence from that high functionary for 
traffic with army contractors and agents. Min- 
isters of the holy gospel have replenished their 
thin libraries from the well stocked reposito- 
ries of Secessia. Grooms, suttlers ana army 
hangers-on — all, have fattened among the 
plunder of the general riot. The wardrobes 
of Yankee land have been replenished 
from the georgious mansions of Dixie — 
Northern tables have groaned under the weight 
of silver plate and expensive wares from South- 
ern cupboards. The shoddy contractor — a 
mendicant of the past, now riots at the table 
of luxury, reposes on beds of ease, and rolls 
on wheels of splendor, while the needle woman, 
whose spouse is a knapsack carrier, and who 
is burdened with a large family ef little ones 
—is turned off with eighteen pence a day, 
j)lus threats and curses at the least complaint 
— collectors and surveyors receive in fees, fines 
and perquisites a cool hundred thousand dol- 
lars per annum, while those who make the 
garments ihey wear are pinched with want, 
and gi'im starvation knocks at every door. 
€ivil officers and contractors are rolling in 
wealth, while the poor soldier receives a pit- 
tance two small to divide with the sutler and 
keep the wolf away from the door of his dis- 
tant family. 

Tn short, "loyalty" pays. Whoever votes 
the radical ticket and "runs with the Adminis- 
tration machine" is on the high road to for- 
tune. He sees greenbacks in every bush, and 
"profits" echo from every "loyal" exclama- 



tion. All goes on swimmingly. Those whomak 
their money (?) easy and don't enlist, but in 
sist that everybody is disloyal but themselves, 
are but scions of that old Puritanical stock 
who in 1732: 

'■'■Resolved^ That the earth is the Lord's and 
the fullness thereof. 

'■'■Resolved., That the Lord hath given the in- 
heritance thereof to the saints. 

'■'■Resolved, That we are the saints!" 

TUG MONSTROSITY OF FRAUDS. 

The evidences of vast and flagrant frauds 
that we have been collecting for two years and 
a half, and that now lie before us, are so vo- 
luminous that it is appaling, and we hardly 
kaow where to begin, or what selections to 
make. The difficulty is not what we shall in- 
sert, but to determine what to exclude. We 
confess our inability to do justice to the sub- 
ject, without extending this chapter beyond 
the reasonable limits of this work, and we 
therefore shall content ourself, in many cases, 
with a citation of the facts, omitting the evi- 
dence, which, in most cases, is conclusive 
and damning. 

It would seem that a banditti of robbers, 
formidable in numbers, and insatiate in greed, 
had combined to precipitate war, as thieves 
conspire to fire cities, witli especial view to 
plunder; nor has the system of robbery been 
confined to the common thieves, and dabblers 
in petty contracts, but the evil permeates all 
classes of the ins, from Mule Agents, Shod- 
dy Contractors, up to members of Congress, 
and even Cabinet ministers — each has vied 
with the other in the race for the spoils, with 
a zeal and persistency worthy a better cause. 

NEW YORK CUSTOM HOUSE FRAUDS. 

The Abolition Congress of 1862 oppointed a 
committee to investigate the frauds of the Cus- 
tom House. The majority of the committee, 
Messrs. E. B. Washburne, R. E. Fenton, 
Wm. S. Holman, H. L. Dawes, and W. G. 
Steele, made a report on the subject, which 
was so tame, and intended to excuse the guilty 
in so many ways that Mr. Van Wyck (Rep.) 
submitted a minority report, setting forth the 
facts, which the Republioans endeavored to 
suppress. We take the following, however, 
frsm the majority report, which is bad enough 
in all conscience. Here are the final conclu- 
sions of the majority of the committee. 
""F'nally, in regard to the general course of 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



309 



business in these departments of the public 
service in New York city, into ■which the com- 
mittee were directed to make enquiry, they 
would say in conclusion, that there are more or 
less abuses of the administration of a system so 
vast and varied as that under consideration. 
Some of these abuses have probably crept in 
by a lapse of time, hy ci/piditij on the part of 
officials, and occasional lack of vigilance. But 
the committee deem it but just to add in this 
connection that these abuses ivere viore numer- 
ous now than they have been heretofore. 

E. B. WASHBURNE, Cbiilrman. 

K. E. FENTON. 

WM. S. HOLM AN, 

H. L.DAWES. 

W. Q. STEELE." 

TESTIMONY AND FACTS. 

The following, though but a small moity of 
the testimony and facts, will give some clue to 
thenatureof the patriotism of the office-holders 

Samuel G. Ogden sworn, says: The compeusation re- 
ceived from the goTernmeut by the three officers the col- 
lector, naval officer, and surveyor, is limited by law. The 
collector. $6,400; naval officer, §.5,000; surveyor, $4,900.— 
These officers also receive each one-third of the half of the 
not proceeds of all forfeitures, fine', penalties, &c. I have 
been acting in the capacity of auditor since 1842. In all 
such cases the money is paid to me, and I distribute it ac- 
cording to law. The collector, nav.al officer, and surveyor 
exercise the authority of adjusting the cases of seizures,&c. 

Question. "What is the object of that mode of adjust- 
ment? 

Answer. To save costs and delaj'. 

Q. Are not these violations of law sometimes adjusted 
or compromised for the purpose of avoiding the publicity 
of legal proceedings; and if so, through the intervention 
of what officer is such compromise etlected? What data 
are furnished to your office iu such a case, and by whom 
is the money paid to you? 

A. To avoid publicity may be an inducement to settle 
in that way. 1 have no data of such cases, and am not 
aware of any such compromises being made, beyond the 
mere fact of receiving Vie mowey, which ia always paid in 
the same way. 

Q. No sum of money, then, is ever paid to your office, 
except i'n one of two ways: either the money comes 
through aregular judgment of forfeiture, or through what 
would be called a compromise of the transaction, without 
the publicity of lejral proceedings? 

A. It comes in one of these two ways. 

Q. If property is seized, then, it is either condemned or 
released, or the value of the property is paid into your 
office? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Will you furnish to the committee a statement of 
the moneys paid into your office, showing the amounts 
paid to the collector, naval officer and surveyor? 

A. I will furnish such a statement. 

From the statements subsequently furnished 
by the auditor, the following is compiled: 

From April 1, ISOl, to December, 1862— one 
year and eight months — the collector received 
for salary S^OjCCT 00 

For distributive share of fines, penalties, and 
seizures 23,51-1 98 

Through the hiiuds of the cr.shier the collector 
receives some .tJ300 per mouth for services 
rendered by virtue of his office to the state 
officers, which adds to the above twenty 
months 6,000 00 

"In reference to which the following testi- 
mony was taken: 

Wm. D. Robinson sworn, says; lam known as the 
cashier of the Custom House. 

Q. What commission does the collector of this port re- 
ceive for the collection of those dues for the state officers? 



A. Five per cent, from the harbormasters, t' -o" per 
cent, from the health officers, and two aad a hal! . ..i the 
Seamen's Hospital. 

Q. What would be the average value of these comniis- 
missiouH? 

A. I should think about $300 a month. 

Q. Do you know whether the moneys so received are in 
any way accounted for by the collector to the government, 
or ari they simply regarded as a compensation from the 
officers of the State of New York for the services per- 
formed? 

A . It is simply a compensation from those particular of- 
ficers, and the general government has no connection with 
the matter. 

y. And therefore he makes no report of the money so 
leceived? 

A. None whatever. 

It will be seen by the foregoing statements, 
that the receipts of the collector for the first 
twenty months of his official career were ^45,- 
571.08, to which let there be added the cotton 
agency commissions for eight months, amount- 
ing to §6,762.91, and the alleged profits real- 
ized by the "professional" services of one of 
his law partners, not less than §1,200 per 
month— although accounts already published 
place this profit as high as §2,500 per month. 
In addition to these amounts we find in the tes- 
timony of Mr Ogden the following : 

Q. Is the collector entitled to a share pending in case 
of seizure, <fcc., not disposed of at the time of his retiring 
from office ? 

A. Yes, sir. If the case of confiscation was commenc- 
ed by him, and not disposed of before the expiration of 
his term of office, he receives his share whenever it is dis- 
posed of; that is to say, the emoluments from confisca- 
tions, fines, penalties, &c., go to the collector in whose 
term of office the prosecutions were commenced. 

Q. You have no mean.s of telling what will finally be 
received by the collector from pending cases? 

A. No, sir. Nobody can tell that ; we never can tell 
what the courts will deciee, or our juries will decide. 

Q. How does the amount received by the collector, dur- 
ing his term of office, compare with the amount received 
by his predecessors? 

A. It is considerably larger than was received by his 
predecessors generally. 

"On the subject of the proceeds from the 
prosecutions commenced during the term of the 
collector, it will be necessary to quote from a 
report of the Secretary of the Treasury. It 
says : 

statement of suits brought in the Southern District in 
the State of New York, for the recovery of fines, penalties 
and for forfeitures for vio'aiion of the revenue laws, &c., 
during the year: 843 suits were brought for the recovery 
of 51,o23,9y0.93, The total amount reported collected 
was $332,433. 02^eaving still pending and undecided in 
this district 233 suits. 1 he chief cause cf their not hav- 
ing been brought to trial has been the inability of tho 
judges sitting within the district to hear and determine 
tho immense number of cases brought before them. 

"The collector's distributive share of these 
suits then will amount to §55,405 60, or in the 
same proportion for twenty months it will reach 
the sum of §92,342 67. This business has 
unquestionably been much larger during the 
term of the present collector. 

"In addition to this we have other testimony 
from the auditor, who says that under the act 
of July 13, 1861, the fees resulting to the col- 
lector, naval officer, and surveyor have amount- 
ed to about (at the time he testified) §4000 
each, and then further payments were discon- 
tinued. 

Q. Have there been a great number of vsssels of that 
character seized (Vessels belonging to disloyal persona.) 



310 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



A. There have been many stize J. 

Q. A process of court is pending against tbeni? 

A. In man}' cases. 

"It is alleged that over three hundred ves- 
sels were 'seized, worth, at an average valua- 
tion, ^400,000, one-sixth of which is claimed 
by the collector, one-sixth by the survej-or. 
and one-sixth by the naval officer— being to 
each §66,666 for the operations in this line 
during the years 1861 and 1862, which will no 
doubt be received by the revenue officers if 
Congress does not make an investigation into 
the subject. 

"The office of the collector of the customs is 
worth in one year, then, on the authority of the 
foregoing testimoui*: 

SALARIES AND EX0EM0U3 PERQUISITES. 

Salary S6,500 

Commissions from state oflScers, haibor masters. &c. 3,000 
Cash proceeds from siezures, penalties, <S:c., (ooe 

year) 21,000 

Proportion to be derived fsom suits commenced, (one 

year) 55,4)6 

Total ?86,C30 

JNCIDENT.iL PERQUSITES, OR STEALINGS. 

During the iirst year of office siezures of vessels belong- 
ing to disloyal persons, by the act of the 13th of July, 
18(51 $65,606.tJU 

"Cotton agency" commissions for eight months 6,762.91 

Total $73,-129,47 

IRREGULAR STEALIXllS. 

Paid to law partner for his "'professional" advice, &c., 
concerning the general order stores, 11,200 per month, 
(one year) $14,400.00 

"The last item is believed to be much below 
the actual figures. The testimony before the 
committee, carefully figured out, reveals this 
important fact: that the actual regular emolu- 
ments of the office reached §86,600 per annum, 
or §7,219 per month. 

"The naval officer's emoluments are §81,930 
per annum. 

"The surveyor's emoluments are §81,430 per 
annum. 

"The two latter expect to have an opportunity 
of dividing the proceeds of the sales of vessels 
seized as being the property of disloyal owners. 

"The other testimony relates to the manner 
in which these seizures are made, and exhibits 
the perfect machinery used by the collector, 
X. aval officier and surveyor, to obtain from luck- 
less importers the large sums that go to make 
up the fines, seizures and penalties." * 

MR. VAN WYGK's SPEECH — ASTOUNDING 
FRAUDS DEVELOPED. 

Mr. Van Wyck, a Republican Member of 
Congress from New York was a member of one 
of the Investigating committees. On the 7th 
of February, 1865, when an attempt had been 
made to choke him off, and suppress his re- 

* Notwithstanding it is here shown that Collector Bar- 
ney receives nearly $100,000 per annum . The law of Con- 
gress requires each person to make return of his, her or 
their income, that it may be ta.xed to help pay govern- 
ment expenses, &c. Collector Barney, under this law, re- 
turns his income aXjificen tliousand dollars! Comment is 
unnecessary . 



port, he made a speech, from which we select 
the following copious extract?: 

"Mr. Van Wyck (Rep. N. Y .) commenced 
by pointing to the parallel between the 19th of _ 
April, 1861, and the 17th of April, 1775— the 
battle of Lexington, and the murderous 
slaughter of Massachusetts men in the streets 
of Baltimore. He pointed out the material and 
other sacrifices the country had made, and 
then proceeded to analyze the special case 
which had come before tLe committee. 

Cattle Contract. 

" A contract was made in this city by the 
Department with Dwyer, Laughman. Sibley & 
Tyler, for cattle, from 2,000 to 10,000, at §8 
per hundred, live weight, delivered here, and 
§5 75 in Pennsylvania. What facilities had 
Dwyer & Co. for transportation which the gov- 
ernment did not possess ? Government could ' 
lay its strong arms on railroads, and use them; 
could plant its gathering armies to guard the 
bridges and track. At that very time an agent 
was sent by the Department into Maryland, 
who, without difficulty, purchased cattle, to be 
delivered in Washington, at §6 50 per hund- 
red, live weight. Besides, direct navigation 
with New York, was not obstructed by the Po- 
tomac. Still more, if the danger of transpor- 
tation through Maryland was an excuse for 
this contract, big with profits, why a provision 
that a portion should be delivered in Pennsyl- 
vania if the Department desired, and why were 
nearly 1,500 received in Harrisburg, while 
scarce 800 were delivered in Washington? Not- 
withstanding the lions in the way. Dwyer & 
Co. immediately sub-let the contract to New 
York men, so that without any hazard or per- 
ils, they realized §32,000, on about 2,000 head 
of cattle. 

Cummings' Ajency. 

"On the 21st day of April, the Secretary of 
War, although he v«-ell know the great ability 
and experience of Colonel Tompkins, Quarter- 
master, and Major Eaton, Commissary, in New 
York city, wrote two letters to Alexander 
Cummings. Esq. In one, he 
"wantshim to aid the Commissary in purchashig supplies; 
to assist the Quartermaster in pushing them forward." 

"The other letter says that 

'•The Department needs at this moment an intelligent, 
experienced and energetic man, in whom it can rely, to 
assist in pushing forward troops, munitions and supplies." 

"No man knew better than the Secretary 
that these qualifications were already possessed 
by the army officers in New York, on whom it 
was safe to rely. Armed with letters of ap- 
proval from the AVar Office, he was for the 
time supreme in the department marked out 
for him. Instead of rendering aid and assist- 
ance, he effectually superceded the army offi- 
cers. Majoi Faton distinctly informed him 
that his services were not needed in the pur- 
chase of supplies. Still, the Doctor com- 
menced buying over §21,000 worth of straw 
hats and linen pantaloons, which were worth- 
less to the army, and not required by the reg- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



811 



ulations. He employed a clerk, of whom he 
knew nothing, and had never seen before. In 
Lis evidence, at first, he did not know who 
recommended him; then he thought he was 
recommended by Thurlow Weed; and finally 
said, 'I remember now that Mr. Weed told me 
that he knew all about him, and upon his re- 
commendation I took him.' This clerk, Mr. 
Cummings suffered to do all the business, and 
make all the purchases, except what were made 
by Geo. D. Morgan. 

Charter of the Cataline. 

"Mr. Cummings next appoints Capt. Com- 
stock to purchase or charter vessels. The Cap- 
tain, with a friend, goes to Brooklyn, inspects 
the Cataline. and learns that her price is from 
§15,000 to §20,000. Instead of purchasing, 
or chartering, or recommending Cummings to 
do so, from the owners, his friend suggests to 
Mr. Develin that there 'is a nice opportunity 
to make something by good management.' 
Capt. Comstock knew that Cummings was agent 
for the AVar Department, still he counsels free- 
ly with Mr. Develin about the value of the 
Cataline, and gives an opinion what will be 
paid for her charter. Had she been cheap at 
§18,000, his government was entitled to the 
purchase. After yielding to Mr. Develin all 
the time requiied for the negotiation, on the 
25th the boat was chartered by Col. Tompkins, 
he relying upon Captain Comstock, the author- 
ized agent of Cummings, the agent of the War 
Department, paying for her use §10,000 per 
month for three months, and if lost by war 
risks, the Government to pay §50,000. Col. 
Tompkins would not sign until Capt. Comstock 
assured him that she was worth §50,000, and 
that it was all right. The testimony of Cnpt. 
Comstock shows the vast number and almost 
unlimited power of persons at that time assum- 
ing to act as agents for the Government. He 
says: 

"I was sent for by Mr. Weed to come to the Astor Iloiise 
about the time of the commencemeut of these troubles. 
lie stated that he was ageut of the Governmeut, and had 
troops and munitions of war to go to Washington by way 
of the Chesapeake, and that he wished to charter vessels 
for that purpose." * * * * * 

'•Afterwards Cummings called on me and showed me the 
same authority that Weed had shown. It had been trans- 
ferred to him to perform the same service." * * * 
'■I should think that Weed chartered from six to ten ves- 
sels." 

"This testimony was given on the 28th day 
of December, and up to that time the committee 
I had no evidence or intimation that Mr. AVeed 
had been an agent for the government, or acting 
as such. The committee are not able to show 
by whom the vessel was loaded. But Collector 
Barney swears that, on the 27th April, Mr. 
Stetson, in whose name the tittle had been taken 
called on him, declaring a clearance to An- 
napolis. AVhen asked how she was loaded, 
and to whom the cargo belonged, he replied, 
she was loaded with provisions, and belonged 
to several of his friends. Mr. Barney refused 
to clear her. Stetson then said the provisions 
■were for the army. Mr. Barney replied that, 
as the property was not government property, 



but property of individuals, he would not clear 
her except at the request of some Government 
officer. It is just to say here, that Mr. Develin 
was evidently induced to purchase the vessel 
at the suggestion of those who were acting for 
the Government, and that Mr. Stetson, in°eve- 
ry thing he did, was frank, candid, and made 
no concealment. When Mr. Stetson again call- 
ed on the collector "he brought a note from 
Mr. Weed, stating that the cargo consisted of 
supplies for troops, and requesting a clearance" 
Mr. Barney declined, but saw Mr. AVeed and 
explained why a clearance could not be grant- 
ed. Mr. AVeed said "it was all right and would 
be arranged in some other way." 

"A pass was obtained from Gen. AVool, 
which he regretted, for he sent an order to the 
Collector revoking it; but the fugitive had es- 
caped. Her voyage was an unfortunate one j 
after two month's service she was destroyed by 
fire. The question recurs, who were the 
friends referred to by Mr. Stetson as the own- 
ers of the cargo ? Mr. Freeman, who had one- 
tenth interest in the profits, swears, after de- 
clining to do so, that he received as part secu- 
rity for the purchase money of the Cataline, 
four notes of §4,500 each, as follows : One 
note by John E. Develin, endorsed G. C. Da- 
vidson ; one note by Thurlow AVeed, endorsed 
John E. Develin ; one note by G. C. Davidson 
endorsed 0. B. Matteson ; one note by 0. b! 
Mattesou, endorsed TJiurlow AVeed. The only 
other; person besides the captain and crew, 
was James Larkin, who went on the boat, he 
said, as purser, although he finally concliided 
his dutyi was to act as clerk tor the captain. 
This man was appointed by Mr. Develin, upon 
the recommendation of Mr. Davidson. No one 
seemed to take any interest in loading the ves- 
sel except Mr. Develin. Col. Tompkins knew 
nothing of her cargo. The Union Defense 
Committee knew nothing of her car"-o • and 
Dr. Cummings was asked if he knew anythin'' 
of her cargo. §2,000,000, by the Secretary ol 
the Treasury, were placed in the hands of a 
committee of high-toned, honorable men, to be 
paid out on the order or requisition of Mr. 
Cummings, without his producing to them any 
vouchers. Strange as it may appear, while 
this money was there to respond to his requisi- 
tion, he draws §160,000 and deposits it in his 
name, with his private account, in one of the 
city banks. Stranger still, four mouths after 
his agency had ceased, he leaves no vouchers 
with the War Department. The AVar Depart- 
ment, in its generous confidence, seeks no set- 
tlement nor an inspection of vouchers. 

General 3Ianiafor Stealing. 
"The mania for stealing seems to have run 
through all the relations of government. Even 
in the matter af the purchase of two sailing 
vessels, two men of New York, to the crime of 
larceny, added the sin of perjury, that they 
might rob from the Treasury §8,000. In the 
case of the Stars and Stripes, the President of 
the New Haven Propeller Company, after ta- 
king from the Government §19,000 more than 
she cost, took of that amount neaily §8,000 to 



312 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



line his own pockets, and, in excuse to his com- 
pany, pretended that he had to bribe an ex- 
, Member of Congress to gain an audience to the 
head of the Bureau; and from that institution 
an honorable, high-toned ex-Member of Con- 
gress in Connecticut had been subjected to cal- 
umny. The President, before the Committee, 
testified that after taking .? 19,000 in profits 
from his country, he was so anxious to serve 
her in this, the hour of her extremity, that he 
appropriated nearly $8,000 of his colleagues' 
money to his private use, so he could devise 
some machine to take all the Southern cities 
and no one get hurt. The Department which 
has allowed conspiracies, after the bidding had 
been closed to defraud the Government of the 
lowest bid, and by allowing the guilty to reap 
the fruits of their crime, has itself heenparti- 
ceps criininis. Who pretends any public exi- 
gency for giving out by private contract, with- 
out bids, over f 1,000,000 muskets, at fabulous 
prices? Who pretends a public exigency to 
make a private contract for rifling cannon to 
the amount of $800,000. 

Horse Contracts. 

"My colleague on the committee (Mr. 
Dawes) a few days «nce spoke of the peace- 
oiferings of Pennsylvania politicians, and re- 
ferred to the horses of Col. Williams' regi- 
ment. There is yet another case. A contract 
not made upon the responsibility of the Bu 
reau, as the late Secretary said, but by his ex- 
press order, and refused to be made until so 
ordered. I refer to the contract to purchase 
1,000 horses, to be delivered at Huntingdon, 
Penn. Such a horse market the world never 
saw. Horses with running sores, which were 
seen by the Inspector, and branded; and if one 
outraged common decency he would be reject- 
ed, an opportunity sought the same day to pass 
and brand him. Immediately the horses were 
subsisted by private contract to favorites, at 
39 cents per day, and they sub-let to farmers 
at 24 to 26 cents. Over 400 of these horses 
•were sent with Col. Wynkoop's regiment, and 
the papers at Pittsburg report some actually so 
worthless they were left on the docks. The 
remaining 500 were left at Huntingdon for the 
benefit of contractors. In that single trans- 
action over $.'30,000 were stolen from the gov- 
ernment. 

Contract Brokerage. 

"The testimony of Mr. John Smith, of 
Kingston, N. Y., powder manufacturer, shows 
that in the month of Mny he proposed to give 
Mr. Weed a per eentage for a powder contract; 
that he went to the Astor House, met Mr. Da- 
vidson, whom he had never seen before; in- 
quired of him for Mr. Thurlow AVeed. During 
the conversation he asked what Mr. Smith 
wanted of Mr. Weed; on being told, he en- 
quired of Mr. Smith what he could aiford to 
pay; he replied, five per cent.. Mr. Smith 
also says that Mr. Weed asked him what he 
could afford to pay. That afterwards, at Wash- 
ington, he handed his propositions for powder 



to Mr. Weed, who took them to Mr. Cameron. 
The result was that Mr. Weed was authorized 
to wiite a letter to Gen. Ripley, the head of 
the Ordnance Department, to divide the con- 
tracts for powder between the states manufac- 
turing. It is somewhat strange that the Sec- 
retary should appoint Mr. Weed as his mes- 
senger to carry his wishes to the different bu- 
reaus. Mr. Smith understood that he was to 
pay Mr. Weed five per cent. Mr. Laflin also 
testified that his powder firm demurred to pay- 
ing Mr. Weed five per cent.; that Mr. Weed 
gave them authority to make 1,000 barrels of 
powder, but they preferred having the author- 
ity from the Government. He also testifies 
that the patriot Dwyer, who figured in the 
cattle contract, in May or June, at Washing- 
ton, told him if he would give five per cent, he 
would sell all the powder he could make; but 
Laflin declined. 

The Treasury Department. 

" Even in the Treasury Department — pure 
and upright as I believe the Secretary to be — 
what business man could justify, or who, in 
his own transactions, would allow that a con- 
tract of over half a million expenditure should 
be competed for by only two firms, who could 
combine and unite ? It is no answer to say 
that the work is done as cheaply as before ; the 
spirit of the law has been violated, and the 
millionaire enriched ; besides the products of 
all departments of labor are cheapened by the 
stagnation of business. In this matter of the 
bank note contract, as in some others, under- 
lings control the aff'airs of the department — 
they say who shall approach within the charm- 
ed circle, they say whose papers shall be put 
on file, and whose shall be gladdened by the 
eyes of the Secretary. 

The Purchase of Arins. 

"Another remarkable transaction was the 
sale by the Ordnance Bureau to Mr. Eastman, 
of 5.000 Hall's carbines, as an arm which 
needed some alteration to be useful, for $.3.50 
each. This private sale was made at a time 
when the Department was buying arms which 
had been condemned, and sent from the arsen- 
als of Europe. After an expenditure of from 
75 cents to $1.26, they were sold to Simon 
Stevens for $12.50; then to Gen. Fremont for 
$22. No wonder our expenses are $2,000,000 
per day — Government sells at ^3.50. and in a 
short time buys back at $22. Dr. Cummings 
bought 700 of the same carbines for $15. The 
evidence of Maj. Hagder shows that Mr. Ste- 
vens was an agent or aid of Gen. Fremont. 
This Mr. Stevens denies. However, the rela- 
tion was one of a warm personal character. 
He had probably just left him with instruction 
to purchase. His dispatch to Fremont wasjust 
such as an agent would send, or one who had 
the assurance of the necessities of the West, 
and that the arms would be taken. At all 
events, the bargain was an unconscionable one 
whereby Stevens was to make about $90,000 in 
one day, without incurring any risk or invest- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



313 



ing any capital. Mr. Van Wyck next referred 
to the Department of the West, and charged 
that Child, Pratt & Co., made from 25 to 50 
per cent, on a contract of ^l,000,OuO. 

Geo. D. Aforffan^s Operations. 

"Mr. Geo. D. Morgan has prepared an elab- 
orate paper, showing the benefits of his agency, 
and relies upon the fact that in nearly every 
instance he paid a less price than the owner 
asked. We can test the strength of his posi- 
tion by the Stars and Stripes To build her 
cost §36,000; by her charter the owner real- 
ized §15,000 from Government; they then 
asked §60,000. Mr. Morgan paid §55,000, 
§5,000 less than they asked, but §19,000 more 
than the cost. While with the Potomska and 
Wamsutta the owners realized §53,000, the 
Government paid §60,000, although Mr. Mor- 
gan's papers allege he was asked §80,000. 
This seems the reverse of the prosition. The 
Onward was offered to private parties for §26,- 
000; Mr. Morgan was asked §30,000, and paid 
§27,000. These are not the only instances, as 
the committee will show by a further examina- 
tion, to which they are invited by the Secre- 
tary, and directed by a resolution of this 
House. Mr. Van Wyck proceeded to give many 
instances ot extortion in the purchase of ves- 
sels, and then referred to — 

Army Transportation. 

" Another item of reckless expenditure was 
the order of the War Department allowing two 
cents per mile for the transportation of troops, 
and liberal prices for baggage and horses. So 
enormous were the profits that railroad com- 
panies in the west bid and paid from §1,509 to 
§2,500 to nearly every regiment for the privi- 
lege of transportation. It is remarkable that 
the late Secretary, who was himself, by long 
experience and observation, so conversant with 
the management of railroads, who rejoiced in 
the confidence of a friend who was intimate 
with railroad connections, especially in Penn- 
sylvania, should have allowed railroad compa- 
nies such large amounts that they could lavish 
thousands for the transportation of a single 
regiment. 'Having referred at length to the 
magnitude of the struggle, Mr. Van Wyck con- 
cluded as follows : 

"The dead past from out the page of history 
is looking down upon us; the living present, 
throbbing with hope, trembling with fear, is 
looking down upon us. The oncoming future, 
the echo '"f whose millions' footfals in the cor- 
ridors of time we can almost hear, looking up- 
on, beckoning us, and in silent prayer beseech- 
ing that we may be true to ourselves, the great 
legacy our fathers bequeathed, to the trust 
placed in our hands, to enjoy and transmit, 
not to tarnish and destroy. By all the memor- 
ies of the past; by all the prospects of the pres- 
ent; by all the hopes of the future, let us rid 
ourselves of the sappers and miners at home; 
conquer this rebellion and subdue the traitors 
Do you say we may not succeed? Then let us 
perish in the attempt. We may vainly die for 
21 



the land we cannot save? Then be it so. Here 
let hope and liberty's farewell fight be fought. 
The pale angel of the grave can at last steer 
our illdestined bark through the "Gate of 
Tears." 

" ' Our cause may be betrayed, 

Our dear loved country made 

A laud of carcasses and elaves. 

Cue dreary waste uf chains aud jiraves.' 

" We cannot, we dare not yield, while heav- 
en has light, or earth has grnvesj, 

" ' No — rather houseless roam, 
AVhere freedom aud our (ioa mny leaof, 
Than be the sleekest slave at home, 
That crouches to the conquerer's creed.' 

"No such dreadful fate can be ours, if we 
are only true to humanity and the God who 
guides the destinies of nations, the movements 
of arms, as he does the sparrow in its fall. — 
Here we make our stand ; 500,000 men, a wall 
of human hearts, to guard the land we love, 
the flag we honor. If driven hence, even to 
the ocean and the lakes, we there will stand 

" ' Until the last red blade he brokeu, 
And the last arrow in the quiver.' " 

COL. VAN WYCK's TESTIMONY. 

In the speech of Col. Van Wyck, on the 
subject of Custom House and other frauds, he 
said : We quote from his speech, as published 
in the N. Y. Tribune, of March 7, 1863. In 
allusion to the selection of Mr. Barney to 
be cotton agent at that port, the speech says : 

"When the Secretary of the Treasury ap- 
pointed Barney government cotton agent, he 
did that for which unless explained, he de- 
serves the censure of the people. In the name 
of a divided country and bankrupt treasury, 
what has Hiram Barney done for this nation 
that he should have a carte blanche to dive into 
the treasury as far and as often as he desires? 
Forty thousand dollars per annum! Must I 
submit to so glaring an outrage, and be told, 
as I often have, that the revelation will injure 
my party and political friends? This is not 
my party, these are not my political friends, 
who will allow or tolerate such practices. Did 
not the Secretary know that the arduous duties 
of the collector had rendered his mind very 
weak? Why impose the labor of taking nearly 
§7,000 more from the treasury on a man al- 
ready overburdened? It was cruel, indeed it 
was. Mr. Chase must have known that the col- 
lector was very obnoxious to most of the mer- 
chants of New York, and many believe that he 
is entirely incompetent for the duties neces- 
sary by virtue of his office. Why then super- 
add these of cotton agent? Sir, there is but 
very littlo difference whether rebels destroy us 
in front, or polished, amiable gentlemen eat 
out our subsistence in the rear. 

Of the general order stores a Republican 
member of Congress comments in this wise: 
"Mr. Barney is wrong when he says he se- 



3U 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



lects and has a rule for selecting; while the 
truth is, he places the privilege in irresponsi- 
ble hands, and they vend it to those who will 
submit '0 the exaction. Such men would pro- 
bably sell their country in the markets of the 
world, if they could give a title. This practice 
never prevailed under any other collector. 3fr. 
Barne;! knew of these extortions; at least he 
was written to upon the subject, and never 
checked the abuse; and thirty per cent, was 
paid by several merchants as -a condition of en- 
joying the business — a sale of offices of the 
government for which Mr. Barney long ago 
should have beendriven from his seat in the cus- 
toms. He must have known it; it was his duty 
to know," 

The conclusion of Van Wtck's comment 
upon these Republican appointees is as follows: 

"Vet, as a member of the Republican party, 
and a friend of the administration, I feel that 
we have their sins to carry, and I desire here 
to remonstrate. The neck begins to chafe 
where the yoke of this heavy burden is borne. 
The administration has feared to drive such 
men from its door, lest hostility should be 
aroused against it. That which they supposed 
was strength has been the great source of 
weakness. With a single exception, when has 
one of these men been court martialed or pun- 
ished? To-day they have injured the Republic 
more than the South in arms. Had they been 
arreste'l ind placed under the gallows or in 
fort Lafayette, your army would have been 
■stronger, and your people at home more united. 
No wonder that your soldiery and their friends 
are disatisficd. TIkh cinnot appreciate the pat- 
riotism of stealing. 

"Your army, for a mere monthly pittance, 
deprived of all the luxuries and, at times, of 
'the necessaries of life, endure all the priva- 
tions of camp and the dangers of battle, while 
they see base men making mockery of the mis- 
fortunes of the nation, unchecked and unpun- 
ished, coining gold from the tears and sighs of 
the people. These things produce more dis- 
trust than change of commanders or circulation 
of newspapers. Some professing friendship for 
the administration, if they cannot have full 
sway in shaping its policy, directing its ap- 
pointments, and controlling its plunder, must 
be allowed, forsooth, to form new party organ- 
izations. Still in this time of trial, loyal men 
can only hope for better times." 

JOHN p. HALE ON "COEKUPTIONS." 

Senator Hale, in his place in the U. S. Sen- 
ate, in speaking of the frauds and corruptions 
of his own party, said: 

"I declare upon my responsibility as a Sena- 
tor, that the liberties of this country are in 
greater danger to-day from the corruptions and 
from the profligacy practiced in the various 
departments of the Governments, than they are 
from the enemy in the open field." 



MR, DAWES ON FRAUDS. 

Mr. Dawes, a Republican Representative 
fro a Massachusetts, was also a member of the 
committee to investigate Army Contracts. On 
the 13th of July, 1862, he made a speech in 
Congress, in which he exposed the rottenness 
of this administration. As great portions of 
his speech refer to the same topics presented 
by Mr. Van Wyck, we will omit such portions, 
and present such other facts as may be inter- 
esting. 

A REFRESHING EXPOSE. 

Mr. DaweSj after exposing the frauds of the 
cattle conti"acts,in which the Secretary of War 
figures in no amiable light, proceeds: 

"I ask the House, at this rate, to consider 
how long the most ample provisions of tha 
Treasury would be able to meet the simple de- 
mands for the subsistence of the army. Sir, 
poorly as the army is shod to-day, si million of 
shoes have already been worn out, and a mil- 
lion more are being manufactured, and yet up- 
on every one of these shoes there has been a 
waste of seventy-five cents. Three quarters of 
a million dollars have already been worn out, 
and three quarters of a million of dollars upon 
shoes is now being manufactured. In that de- 
partment of the Government contracts have been 
so plenty that Government officials have gone 
about the streets with their pockets filled with 
them., and of ivhich they made presents to the 
clergymen of their parishes., and ivith which were 
healed old political sores and old political feuds. 
Even the telegraph announced that high public 
functionaries have graced the love feasts which 
were got up to celebrate these political reconcil- 
iations., thus brought about while the hatchet 
of political animosity was buried in the grave 
of public confidence, and the national credit 
crucified amongst malefactors." 

"We have had reported to us the first fruits 
of one of these contracts. A regiment of cav- 
alry lately reached Louisville, one thousand 
strong, and a band of army oflicers there, ap- 
pointed for the purpose, have corfdemned four 
hundred and eighty-five out of the thousand 
horses, as utterly worthless. The man who ex- 
amined these horses, declared upon his oath, 
that there was not one of them that was worth 
twenty dollars. " They were, blind, spavined, 
ringboned, affiicted with the heaves, with the 
glanders, and with every disease that horse- 
flesh is heir to. These four hundred and eighty- 
five horses cost the Government, before they 
were mustered into the service, fifty-eight 
thousand two hundred dollars, besides more 
than an additional thousand dollars to trans- 
port them from Pennsylvania to Louisville, 
where they were condemned and cast ofl' 

"Mr. Mallory, (Union,) of Ky-, asked what 
regiment these horses belonged to, and who 
furnished them. 

"Mr. Dawes— They belonged to Colonel Wil- 
liams' regiment of cavalry, and they were pur- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK, 



316 



chased in Pennsylvania, from whicli state they 
•were forwarded to Louisville, where they were 
condemned. There are eighty-three regiments 
of cavalry to-day, one thousand strong. It 
takes two hundred and fifty thousand dollars 
to put one of these regiments on foot before it 
moves. Twenty millions of dollars have thus 
been expended on these cavalry regiments be- 
fore they left the encampments where they were 
mustered into service, and hundreds and thou- 
sands of these horses have been condemned 
and sent back to Elmira, and to Annapolis, 
and to this city, to spend the winter. Any day 
hundreds of them can be seen round the city, 
chained to trees, in various places, having thus 
been left to die and rot till the committee on 
the District of Columbia have called for a 
measure of legislation to protect the city from 
the danger to be apprehended from these horse 
Golgothas. 

" An ex-governor of one State offered to an 
ex-judge of another State five thousand dol- 
lars to get him permission to raise one of these 
cavalry regiments, and when the ex-judge 
brought bock the commission, the ex-governor 
takes it to his room at the hotel, Y?hilo another 
plunderer sits at the key-hole watching like a 
mastiff while he inside counts up forty thous- 
and dollars profit on the horses, and calculates 
twenty thousand dollars more for the accoutre- 
ments, and on the other details of furnishing 
these regiments. In addition to the arms in 
the hands of the six hundred thousand soldiers 
in the field, there are numerous outstanding 
contracts, made with private individuals — not 
made upon advertisement, nor made with the 
knowledge of the public, but made by ex-mem- 
bers of Congress^ who knew no more of the 
difFerence between one class of arms and an- 
other, than does a Methodist minister. There 
are outstanding contracts for the manufacture 
of Springfield muskets, the first one of which 
cannot be delivered in six months from this 
day. 

"There is a contract for the supply of one 
million and ninety thousand muskets, at twen- 
ty-eight dollars apiece, when the same quality 
of muskets is manufactured at Springfield for 
thirteen and a half apiece: and an ex-member 
of Congress is now in Massachusetts, trying to 
get machinery made by which he will be able 
to manufacture in some six months hence, at 
twenty-one dollars apiece, those rifled muskets 
manufactured to-day in that armory for thir- 
teen dollars and a half. * * * 

"Besides there are seventy-five thousand five 
hundred and forty-three sets of harness, to be 
delivered by-and-by, at the cost of one million 
nine hundred and seventy-eight thousand four 
hundred and forty-six dollars. I have not 
time to enumerate all these contracts, when we 
appropriated at the last session of Congress, 
for this purpose, twenty millions of dollars, 
thirty-seven millions and some thousand dollars 
had been already pledged to contractors — not 
for the purchase of arms for the men in the 
field, not to protect them in fighting their coun- 
try's battles in this emergency and peril, but 
for some future occasion, or to meet some pres- 



ent need of the contractors. I don't know 
■which at this moment. And not only the ap- 
propriation of last session has been exhausted 
but seventeen millions put upon it. 

"The riot of the 19th of April in Baltimore 
opened this ball, and on the 21st of April, in 
the city of New York, there was organized a 
corps of plunderers of the treasury. Two 
millions of dollars were entrusted to a poor, 
unfortunate, honest, but entirely incompetent 
editor of a paper in New York, to dispense it 
in the best manner he could. Straightway 
this gentleman began to purchase linen panta- 
loons, straw hatS; London porter, dried her- 
rings, and such like provisions for the army, 
till he expended in this way three hundred and 
ninety thousand dollars of the money, and then 
he got scared and quit, [Laughter.] There 
is an appropriation, also, for the supply of 
wood to the army. This contractor is pledged 
the payment of seven dollars a cord for all the 
wood delivered to the difi'erent commands; 
wood collected after the labor of the soldiers 
themselves had cut the trees to clear the 
ground for their batteries; and then this con- 
tractor employs the army wagons to draw it to 
the several camps, and he has no further trou- 
ble than to draw his seven dollars for a cord, 
leaving the government to draw the wood. — 
[Laughter.] It costs two millions of dollars 
every day to support the army in the field. A 
hundred million of dollars have thus been ex- 
pended since we met on the 22d day of Decem- 
ber, and all that time the army has been in re- 
pose. What the expenditure will increase to 
when that great day shall arrive when our eyes 
shall be gladdened with a sight of the army in 
motion, 1 do not know. Another hundred mil- 
lions will go with the hundreds more I have 
enumerated. Another hundred millions may 
be added to these before the 4th of March. 

" What it may cost to put down this rebel- 
lion I care but very little, provided, always, 
that it be put down eSectually. But sir, faith 
without works is dead, and I am iree to con- 
fess that my faith sometimes fails— I mean my 
faith in men, not my faith in the cause. When 
the history of these times shall be written, it 
will be a question upon whom the guilt will 
rest most heavily — upon him who has conspir- 
ed to destroy, or upon him who has proved in- 
competent to preserve the institutions be- 
queathed to us by our fathers. It is no won- 
der that the public treasury trembles and 
staggers like a strong man with too great a 
burthen upon him. A strong man in an air- 
exhausted receiver is not more helpless to-day 
than is the treasury of this government beneath 
the exhausting process to which it is subject- 
ed. The mighty monarch of the forest himself 
may hold at bay the fiercest, mightiest of his foes 
while the vile cur coming up behind him and 
opening his fangs gives him a fatal wound, and 
although he may struggle on boldly and val- 
iantly, the life blood is silently trickling from 
his heart, and he R at last forced to loosen his 
grasp, and he grows faint, and falters and 
dies. 
"The treasury notes issued in the face of 



316 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



these immense outlays, without a revenue from 
custom houses, from land sales, from any 
source whatever, are beginning to pall in the 
market. Already have they begun to sell at 
six per cent, discount at the tables of the mon- 
ey changers; at the very time, too. that we 
here exhibit the singular spectacle of fraud, 
and of a struggle with the Committee of Ways 
and Means itself, in an endeavor to lift up and 
sustain the Government of the country. Al- 
ready the sutler — the curse of the camp — is 
following the paymaster, as the shark follows 
the ship, buying up for four dollars every five 
dollars of the wages of the soldiers paid them 
in treasury notes. I have no desire to hasten 
the movements of the army, or to criticise the 
conduct of its leaders, but in view of the stu- 
pendous drafts upon the treasury, I must saj' 
that I long for the day of striking the blow 
•which will bring this rebellion to an end Six- 
ty days longer of this state of things will bring 
about a result one way or the other. * * 

"Our pressing duty now is to protect and 
save the treasury from further wholesale or 
other system of plundering. In conclusion, he 
argued against paying for printing Treasury 
notes, on the ground that the contract was im- 
properly obtained." 

Notwithstanding these exposes, the frauds 
and peculations have been on the increase. No 
stop has been put to them, and with two or 
three minor exceptions, no one has been pun- 
ished. And still, the work of plunder goes on. 

A New York paper, in commenting on the 
Van Wyck report, says : 

" But enough ! Enough! Column after col- 
umn is filled with evidence and detail on these 
points ! 

''This expose, so bold and so fearless, of 
Van Wyck's committee, we have but to add, 
does them infinite credit,— and it is to their 
honor, that thfy dare to make it. They ex- 
plicitly '• mix up" both the Secretary of War 
and the Secretary of the Navy, in a knoivledge 
of these inmsaclions—and in the better days of 
Republic, neither of them could hold office an 
hour, upon such a charge from a Committee of 
Congress, with sicch an exposition. 

" THE RECORD OF INF.^JIY." 

Congress has raised a great number of inves- 
tigating committees, which have done no good, 
save to officially expose frauds already known 
to the whole count,ry. The AVashburn com- 
mittee produced a massive report of 1515 pages, 
which is now before us. In commenting on 
this report, the Ohio State Journal (Rep.) 
thus paints its true character: 

"By the politeness of a member of Congress 
we have been favored with the full report of 
the Washburne committee, for investigating 
Government contracts. It is a prodigious 
book — one thousand one hundred andninepagcs! 



— it is a monstrous book.' — a monstrocity in 
every respect: monstrous in its hugeness, mon- 
strous in the ugliness of its contents, mon- 
strous in the devilishness of its revelations! — 
The truths therein shown, by sworn and legal 
testimony, are infinitely stranger than fiction. 
This huge and monstrous volume will, perhaps, 
become a reservoir whence some future Dick- 
ens will draw material to exemplify the prac- 
tice of thieves, and for scrutinizing the utter 
blackness of darkness that can surround a hu- 
man soul which permits itself to be cursed by 
the groveling sin of money-lust." 

"Of all the devils that ever entered into the 
human heart. Mammon is immeasurably the 
meanest! We could tolerate Lucifer where we 
would abominate Mammon! And yet, this 
mean, groveling, despicable spirit of Satanic 
malevolence has possessed itself the hearts of 
many after whose names the world used to 
write 'honest,' and before which themselves 
still write 'Honorable!' 

"This monstrous book is the great Record of 
Infamy! Its pages are ban and bar forever 
against those whose names are coupled with 
the infamy of its revelations. They will stand j 
attesting to the nation and the world the 
blighting, searing, scathing ignominy which the 
nation and the world can heap upon those who 
would lie, cheat and steal from their country 
in the moment of its struggle for liberty! The 
common street thief who rushes to the burning 
mansion only to rob its owner while the fire 
opened its doors, is a spirit of angelic purity 
and nobility compared with those moral vam- 
pyres who would suck the last drop of vitality 
from their expiring country." 

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TAKE A HAND IN. 

Hot/ can it be expected that a smaller grade 
of thieves will be punished or even choked off, 
when members of Congress themselves, attack 
and seize the public exchequer' 

SENATOR SIMMONS TAKES 150,000 
Senator Simmons, of Rhode Island, a very 
honest hearted Republican, takes a cod fifty- 
thousand dollars, as the price of his influence 
— not as a citizen, but as a Senator — to obtain 
a contract for a "friend," amounting to §235,- 
000. The question naturally arises, if the con- 
tractor could afford to pay poor honest Simmons 
§50,000, how much profits did he, the said 
contractor realize? 

honest jack hale takes a retainer. 

" Honest Jack Hale" had become an axi- 
om in Republican nomenclature, but it seems 
that some one wanted Jack's vote, or his "in- 
fluence" as a Senator, and he gives him a 
"retainer" (doucer, in the original) of $2,- 
000, with the promise of a "fee" besides. All 
who have been in Washington long enough to 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOR 



317 



aee how steals are filtered through Congress, 
can understand this. Of this transaction the 
New York Tribune, though evidently desiring 
to shield "Honest John," is obliged to thus 
present the case : 

" Why was §2,000 offered to Mr. Kale for 
his services in this case ? Is he in the habit 
of receiving a retainer of §2,000 when he is 
retained as a lawyer ? It seems not, from his 
own account. Why was he offered §2,000 in 
this case ? Was it not because it was presum- 
ed or hoped that his position as a Senator, his 
volitical distinction and influence, would ena- 
ble him to achieve results which an equally good 
lawyer ^ lacking thes--- advantages, would vainly 
attempt'? We do not know that such was the 
fact, and yet the case looks as though it were. 

On the whole, while confident that Mr. Hale 
intended no wrong, and trusting that he has 
done none, we decidedly incline to the opinion 
that Senators ought to leave the defense of al- 
leged peculators and public robbers to mem- 
bers of the bar, whose power to aid them is 
purely professional, and who have no sort of 
scruple as to undertaking the defense and 
pocketing all the fees that may be oflfered. 

THE "middle men" IN WASHINGTON. 

It is pretty generally understood, though we 
believe no official report has directly stated it, 
that there is a horde of outsiders at Washington 
who act the part of stool pigeons for high of- 
ficials. These chaps play the part of "confi- 
dence men." They stand about the streets, 
and the purlieus of that rural Sodom, to have 
the first talk with contractors. If these are 
willing to draw a "margin," they can have 
"audience at court," if not, they are fools to 
approach one of the Departments. But if they 
will shell out liberally, then they are sure of 
contracts, and the bonus is no doubt divided 
between the "middle men" and the head of 
the Department. Do not the facts presented 
by Van Wyck and Dawes, to say nothing of a 
vast array of other facts, prove this? 

THE HORSE SWINDLE. 

The following telegram, which was sent over 
the wires to the Associated Press, January 11', 
1864, is but a sampled the swindling the Gov- 
ernment in almost evei-y locality: 

"Out of eighthundred horses bought in New 
York, and sent to General Butler, seven hund- 
red were condemned. General Butler has ob- 
tained permission to go into the open market." 

FRAUDS IN THE NAVY -YARD. 

[From the New York World, Jan. TS64.J 

"The frauds which have just been unearthed 
n the Brooklyn navy-yard are in keeping with 



the general corruption which seems to pervade 
all the departments of the government. Day 
by day the press of the country chronicles 
the discovery of new swindles upon the publio 
treasury. So common have these disclosures 
become that they no longer excite comment, 
much less indignation. They are taken as a 
matter of course. Yet we cannot but believe 
that they will materially injure the administra- 
tion party in the Presidential contest just 
opening. The Brooklyn navy yard frauds are 
not exactly committed upon the government, 
but upon the workmen employed in the navy- 
_yard and the families of the soldiers in the 
field. When the war opened, with commen- 
dable generosity the carpenters and ship- 
builders agreed to give one day's wages 
in each month for the benefit of the fami- 
lies of such of their numbers as entered 
the service, and they have since the com- 
mencement of the war continued to pay 
in their regular monthly assessments. — 
It is now discovered that the money, which 
amounts to a very large sum, has not been giv- 
en to the volunteers' families, but has found 
its way into the pockets of some of the leading 
Brooklyn politicians It further appears that 
the Republican party of Kings county is kept 
in motion by assessments levied upon the poor 
workmen in the navy yard. Theshoody patri- 
ots who control the action and monopolize the 
oifices and the gift of the Brooklyn politicians, 
do not pay a cent toward the party expenses, 
while the poor workmen, in addition to the 
heavy assessment they are under to the volun- 
teer fund, &Vi also compelled to supply the 
large sums which are needed for running the 
Kings county Republican party. Every feat- 
ure of this navy-yard business is disgraceful to 
every person and party connected with it." 

THE BOOK SWINDLE. 

The Great "reform" Congress ofl863, think- 
ing perhaps it would be their last chance, pass- 
ed a joint resolution to seize all the books not 
already disposed of to be divided among them- 
selves, as the thieves divided the vesture of the 
Redeemer. Secretary Upsher, in his late re- 
port, thus refers to this swindle, and tells the 
country how he managed to evade it, t»nd thus 
to breakup the vandal conspiracy: 

"On the 3d of March, 1863, a joint resolution 
was enacted authorizing and directing the Sec- 
retary cf the Interior, and all other custodians 
thereof, to cause equal distribution to be forth- 
with made among the members of the two 
Houses of the then expiring Congress, of all 
books and documents which had been printed 
or published at the cost of the Government, and 
not actually belonging to any public library, or 
the library kept for use in any department of 
the government, excepting, however, all such 
books and documents as were embraced in any 
existing order for the distribution thereof 
among the members of either House of Congress 
I found, on examination, that the number of 



318 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



volumes of the documents referred to, their in- 
completeness as sets or works, and the uncer- 
tainty as to their value, aggregately or separ- 
ately, were such as to render it wholly imprac- 
ticable to carry the provisions of the joint res- 
olution into eflfect; and the subject is therefore 
respectfully submitted for the further consider- 
ation and action of Congress." 

THE GRIMES (CRIMES ?) COMMITTEE. 

Government Transport Frauds — Rascality, 
Duplicitij and Perjury. 

Of all the chapters of frauds under this 
fraudulent .ildministration, none is more con- 
spicuous than that brought to light by the 
Grimes Committee, relative to transports, &c. 
It seems that the War and Navy Departments 
have been in the habit of appointing obscure 
and irresponsible agents to do that which 
should be done directly with officers of the 
government. They have pursued precisely 
the course a man would pursue, if he wanted 
to make a haul from the treasury, and dare 
not do it without the aid of an accomplice. — 
High-minded, responsible, honorable men can- 
not often be found to play agent in such a 
business, and hence the Departments have 
been in the habit of securing the services of 
the other class. Take, for instance, the case 
ofCoBLENs, whom the War Department select- 
ed as agent to procure transports for the army. 
The frauds, perjuries and rascalities in the 
management of this business, were so bold and 
palpable that Congress appointed a select com- 
mittee to "investigate" them, with Mr. 
Grimes (Rep.,) at the head. The committee 
express their regret that time was not allowed 
for a full investigation, but God Jinows, they 
exhumed enous^h corruption to last a life-time, 
under any honest administration, 

A Prussian, and an obscure pedler, horse 
jockey, and by descent an Israelite, by the 
name of Coblens, of Baltimore, who was 
poor before his appointment as agent to secure 
Government transports for the army, ap- 
peared before the committee as a millionaire 
— the owner of ten steamers, three barges, and 
eighty acres of valuable land in the vicinity of 
Baltimore. He was wholly unfamiliar with 
commercial pursuits, aside from retailing 
Yankee notions, andjockying in horses. He 
admits that he refunded ^1,500 to Govern- 
ment, which was obtained by bribing the in- 
spector of horses — that he bribed three of the 
clerks in Col. Belger's office,' and that he 



was connected with a sale of damaged corn to 
the Government. 

' THE VESSEL CHARTER FRAUDS. 

The following table, compiled from the tes- 
timony of Mr. CoBLENs, Mr. A. C. Hall, and 
Mr. John F. Pickrell, and the reports of 
Col. Belger and Gen. Meigs, exhibits Mr. 
Coblens' transactions with the Government in 
the chartering of transports for the War De- 
partment: 

Name of Vessel. Cost of Vessel. Rates of Charter, 

Steamer Patapsco, $1,200 $85 per day. 

Steamer Baltimore 21,500 2.50 per day. 

Steamer Telegraph 7,000 125 per day. 

Steamer Jas. Murray 9,333 100 per day. 

Steamer Lioness 5,000 45 per day. 

Steamer Edwin Forest 4,. 500 40 per day. 

Steamer Fairy Queen 4,000 40 per day. 

Steamer Cecil 5 000 80 per day. 

Steamer llaswell 3,000 40 per day. 

Steamer Lily . 35 per day. 

Barge Delaware 2,500 70 per day. 

Barge Miss Mary 2,250 25 per day. 

Barge John Warner 12 per day. 

Total $65,283 $947 per day, 

"The rules of arithmetic (say the committee) 
show that Mr. Coblens was receiving money 
from the a;overnment at the rate of $344,655, 
on a capital of §65,283, which is equal to 
529}^ per cent, on his investment.'" 

In addition to this monstrous swindle, the 
Department allowed Mr. Coblens 5 per cent, 
on receipts, and 2)0 per cent, on investments. 
No wonder that the poor horse-jockey became 
suddenly rich, and is it any wonder, that when 
these things are allowed to obscure men, in de- 
fiance of all honorable transactions, and with- 
out law, that one of the heads of the Depart- 
ments can afford to present his daughter with a 
§3,000 shawl, a §35,000 residence, and other 
things to match. 

This whole report is rich in exposures of frauds 
and evidences of perjury, but for want of room, 
we must confine ourself to the summing up of 
the committee. In most of these transactions, 
the name of John Tucker, Assistant Secre- 
tary of AVar, figures conspicuously, as a rogue 
of no small dimensions. 

THE committee's CONCLUSIONS. 

"The ground covered by this report in- 
cludes only a small portion of the duty assign- 
ed to the committee by the resolution of Dec, 
22. As previously stated, the time was too 
short to afford more than a beginning — an out- 
line of the work, which should be undertaken 
at once by a competent military commission, 
and prosecuted through all the channels of the 
transport service, between the 20th of April, 
1861, and the present time. The committee 
are overwhelmed with astonishmsnt and sor- 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP BOOK. 



3ir 



row by tjie revelations which have been made, 
but they believe that nothing which so vitally 
concerns a free people, should be concealed 
from them, and they hope that this investiga- 
tion may tend to a more honest and economical 
administration of the department of the pub- 
lic service to which their attention has been 
directed. 

The conclusions reached by the committee 
from the whole examination in which they 
have been engaged, are 

"1st. The vessels to b« employed by the Government 
should always be secured through the regular and legiti- 
mate channels upoii offers to be made by the owners, or 
agents of such vessels, in answer to public advertise- 
ments. 

"2d. That the practice of employing an /l^/eni to char- 
ter vessels, with unlimited power to fix the rate of charter 
— to determine the character of the vessels to be employ- 
ed, withtlie apparent attempt to fasten the responsibility 
for such transactions upon another party, or upon another 
department, as in the case of employing John Tucker, 
with Capt. Hodges, U. S. A., to charter vessels for the 
McClellan Expedition, the former to inspect and charter, 
the latter merely to sign the contracts that they might 
have the official sanction of the Quarter Master's Depart- 
ment, can neither be justified upon principle, nor upon 
its results. 

""3d. All vessels should be tlioroughly inspected at the 
the time of purchase or chaiter by the Government, by 
competent experts in their profession, who shall be direct- 
ly responsible to the military branch of the Government. 
And it is no apology for the want of such examination to 
say that the vessel had at some time during the preceed- 
ing twelve months been inspected by the agents of the 
Treasury Department. 

"ith. That the monopoly of chartering vessels by Hall, 
Leper and others, even weie it known that their transac- 
tions were honest, cannot be justified, and the officers vrho 
knew that llall and others were extorting commissions 
from the owners and agents of vessels, a,nd permitted such 
monopoly to continue, deserve the severest censure. [This 
is a rap at Mr. Stanton, j 

"5th. The committee are satisfied that the late Assist- 
ant Secretary of War, John Tucker, and Col. James JBel- 
ger, U. S. A., knew of Hall's transactions, and knowing 
them, permited his monopoly, and illegal practices to con- 
tinue. 

"Gth. That the practice of allowing .any person to act 
at the same time in the double capacity of broker of ship 
owners and agents of the Government, to select vessels, in 
both of which characters Hall did act, according to the 
testimony of Col. Belger, is wholly indefensible. 

"7th. That the commissions received by Hall, Loper, 
Danforth and others, which are estimated by the commit- 
tee to amount in the aggregate to several hundred thou- 
sand dollars, [probably not less than §5,000,000,] right- 
fully belong to the Government, and immediate steps 
should be taken by the War Department to ascertain the 
amount due from each, and to secure the money." [The 
fact that no move of the kind has been attempted, is pret- 
ty conclusive proof that the "War Department" has had 
a " portion of the hog. "J 

"Sth. That many of the charters affected by, through, 
or under the acency of Hall, Loper and others, were se- 
cured at exorbitant prices, and are otherwise tainted with 
fraud. All such charters should be at once annulled [but 
they were not] and steps taken to restore to the Treasury 
the sums thus extorted, or fraudulently obtained [that's a 
tiling that has never been attempted under this "honest" 
administration.] 

"9th . That all the charters with Charles Coblens were 
exorbitant in price, and were tainted with fraud — that 
both Coblens and Pickrell should be made to disgorge 
[what an Utopian idea] their ill-gotten gains, and the 
charters should be annulled. 

"10th. That no money should be paid upon charters 
with Coblens, Hall, Loper, Ac, upon vessels owned in 
whole or in part by them, until the amounts honestlj' and 
equitably due to the government, growing out of these 
transactions, shall be ascertained and paid. 

"11th. That the facts heretofore recited, concerning 
Col. James Belger, are sufficiently grave to warrant their 
being examined by military court. 

"12th. That the sums of money obtained by John B. 



Danforth, of N. Y., from the owners of the steamer Mat- 
amora, and from the owners of other vessels, were ob- 
tiiined in violation of law, and against public feeling, and 
that steps should be taken to cause it to be paid into the 
treasury. [This is easier said than done. It might im- 
plicate others high in office, hence it hus not been attemp- 
ted.] 

"13th. The War Department can only restore confidence 
in its transactions, by inflexibly adhering to the rule that 
contracts shall only be made with the owners of vessels,or 
with their immediate, legitimate, established agents, and 
that every officer who shall be shown to be influenced in 
the slightest degree, in according a charter, by fear, force, 
or of faction, or the hope of reward, or who shall ever give 
reasonable grounds for suspicion of his conduct, shall be 
summarily punished, if guilty. [Has this been done in a 
single instance? | 

"14th. The cases of perjury shown in the testimony, 
taken by this committee, shall become subjects of judi cial 
investigation. 

This will do to talk^ but we believe has in 
no case been acted on. 

THE MILEAGE STEAL. 

How can the people expect retrenchment, 
reform, and that "honesty" so much boasted 
of by the party in power, when members of 
Congress take all they can get? Not content 
with attempting to grab all the books, they took 
from the treasury a constructive mileage for 
attendance on the extra session, without 
traveling a rod. The following from the Chica- 
go Tribune will answer under this head: 

"TuE Mileage Gkab. — The members of 
Congress were guilty of a sneaking, dirty grab 
on the Treasury, just before adjourning, by 
which they took out §80,000 to which they 
were not rightfully entitled. The law allows 
each member of Congress .§8,00 a day the year 
round, — Sundays included — or $8,000 a year, 
and mileage at the enormous rate of fifty cents 
a mile each waJ^ The late Congress has held 
two regular and one extra session. The law 
allowed no mileage for the extra session, but 
the honorable gentlemen set it aside and 
reached their arms into the treasury and took 
from thence a third mileage — the AVestern 
members getting fr®m §800 to $1,500, and 
those west of the Rocky Mountains from 
$5,000 to $6000 apiece." 

STUPENDOUS FRAUDS IN NEW YORK. 

A commission was appointed by Congress to 
"investigate" the monstrous frauds in the 
Subsistence Department. An article from the 
New York Times (Radical) of the 27th of De- 
cember, 1862, is before us, from which we take 
the following short extract, as a sample of the 
whole : 

"Mr. Olcott entered upon his investigations 
on the 1st of November last, and has already 
discovered frauds to the extent of $700,000 
perpetrated in this city, and the prospect is, 
that they will reach double that amount before 
the investigation is finished." 

Thus it goes; frauds by the million are per- 



320 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXT8. 



petrated — an investigation is had — the guilty 
tzposed — but nobody punished, and still the 
frauds continue. Still the raid upon the 
Treasury is unchecked — thieves multiply like 
the locusts of Egypt — now and then we hear 
of an arrest, but seldom, if ever the infliction 
of punishment, They are all so linked togeth- 
er — from the highest to the lowest — that there 
is scarcely an honest man in power left to 
prosecute. Now and then we see such articles 
as the following, floating through the columns 
of the press, as editorials or telegrams, but 
they are so frequent as to hardly attract at- 
tention - 

SWINDLING AT CAIRO. 

'•The postmasters at Caji-o are in a bad way. 
Robert M. Jennings, the assistant, was ar- 
raigned before United States Commissioner L. 
B. Adams, of Springfield, on Tuesday, on a 
charge of embezzling, secreting and destroying 
letters, and upon hearing of the case, was held 
to bail in the sum of $3,000 for his appearance 
at the nest term of the District Court. John 
Q Harmon and D. J. Baker, Jr., became his 
sureties. Mr. Linegar. the postmaster, has 
been removed, and Col. James C. Sloo ap- 
pointed in his stead Linegar is said to be 
behind in his accounts with the government 
at least $3,000, and also behind with his 
clerks at least $10,000. Linegar is one of the 
leading abolition politicians of southern Illi- 
nois, and, perhaps, one of the least competent 
men for postmaster to be found in that sec- 
tion." — Chicago Post 

A DEFAULTER CAUGHT. 

"Howland, the defaulting Quartermaster, 
who drew $16,500 on a Qovernment check and 
then fled, was arrested at Hyacinth, Canada." 
— Teler/ram. 

A Government paymaster (Cook) deposited 
several hundred thousand dollars in a faro 
bank at Cincinnati — drank, gambled, and was 
arrested- He felt sorry, and we have heard 
nothing of it since. 

CONTRACTORS ON THE WAR. 

Frum the Speech of Geu. Wilcox. 

" Contractors have carried on this war. The 

blood of our men, the groans of our wounded, 

the tears of the orphan and the wail of the 

widow, have been coined into money. 

LARCENIES. 

From the speech of Dawes, (rep.) from Massachusetts, 
"The larcenies under this administration have 
exceeded the entire expenditures of James Bu- 
chanan' k''' 

MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS WASTED. 

From the Chairman of the Republican Congressional Com- 
mittee. 
" We have seen a system of commissions to 



middle men growing up all over the country, 
stepping in between the producer and furnish- 
er on one side, and the government upon the 
other, that has cost the government millions 
of dollars. 

BEAUTIES OF REPUBLICAN RETRENCHMENT. 

Mr. Dawes, Republican member of Congress 
from Massachusetts, in a speech on the subject 
of the extravagance and frauds of the adminis- 
tration, said: 

"In the first year of a Republican Adminis- 
tration, which came into power upon profes- 
sions of Reform and Retrenchment, there is in- 
dubitable evidence abroad in the land, that 
somebody has plundered the public treasury 
well nigh in that single year, as much as the 
entire current yearly expenses of the Govern- 
ment during the Administration which the peo- 
ple hurled from power because of its corrup- 
tion." 

Fremont's frauds. 

The report of the select committee that 
traveled all over the western country in 1863, 
taking testimony — traveling over six thousand 
miles, and examining over 260 witnesses, is 
another chapter in the history of these frauds 
and rascalities, that has branded this Admin- 
istration as a synonim for peculation and plun- 
der. 

The committee condem.i the purchase by 
Fremont of the Austrian muskets, amounting 
to $166.000 — a total loss, as the committee say 
they were entirely worthless. The Secretary 
of AVar and the Secretary of the Treasury are 
condemned, and placed between two millions 
of dollars, which went into the hands of a 
mere pet, with no security and without war- 
rant of law. 

Fremont's expenditures are severely criti- 
cised. It is impossible for us to even notice 
all the flagrant frauds exposed by this com- 
mittee. The report itself occupies 136 pages, 
and the evidence makes a monster volume. — 
Gen. Fremont is censured for incompetency, 
and in speaking of the extraordinary expendi. 
tures on the "St. Louis fortifications," the 
committee say : 

" The circumstances surrounding this work 
are of the most extraordinary character, and 
are marked by extravagance, recklessness, in- 
subordination and fraud." 

And, again : 

" The dealings of the Quartermaster's De- 
partment at St. Louis, while in the charge of 
Maj. McKinstry, with the firm of Child, Pratt 
& Fox, were very extensive, amounting to 
ovei $800,000 since the present difficulties 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



321 



broke out. This business was not confined 
to the particular kind of business in which the 
firm were engaged, who wer5 hardware mer- 
chants, but extended to every variety of arti- 
cle and thing which the department had occa- 
sion to buy. * * To secure to this 
firm this monopoly, by which immense private 
fortunes were taken from the treasury, all 
provisions of law and army regulations, re- 
quiring advertisement for proposals, and the 
contracting with the lowest bidders, to furnish 
these articles, were totally disregarded, and the 
most unblushing system of favoritism and ex- 
clusiveness established that ever disgraced the 
service. * * * * Every 
branch of industry whose products were in 
any way necessary to the department of the 
west, was made to pay tribute to the firm of 
Child, Pratt & Fox. The profits made by this 
firm out of the United States, by enjoying this 
monopoly, were enormous. Coligan, its book- 
keeper, admitted in testimony that it would 
reach 35 per cent., which upon a trade of 
^ ),000, secures the princely fortune of 
,000 — a tax upon the treasury of the Uni- 
ted States, which nothing but the most con- 
trolling reasons of military necessity would 
ever justify." 

MARSHAL LAMAN MR. LINCOLN'S RT GIIT BOWER 

This distinguished individual, whom Mr. 
Lincoln took on to AVashington with him, for 
the purpose of giving him the Marshalship of 
the District of Columbia, is most severely 
handled by this committee, for his extraordi- 
nary "cheek" in charging ^40,000 for taking 
the 37th Illinois regiment from Saint Louis to 
Williamsport. 

HONEST OLD ABE AND SIMON — HELPING TUElR 
FRIENDS — RICH DEVELOPMENTS. 

When Major MoKinstry was on trial for 
matters related to above, he produced two let- 
ters in court — one from Old Honest Abe and 
one from Honest Simon Cameron, which the 
Major relied upon for his justification in com- 
mitting such base plunders, without advertising, 
&c. The gentleman Mr. Lincoln so patrioti- 
cally desired to serve, because of "the patriot- 
ism of Hlinois," was a partner of Cameron^s 
son, residing in Ilarrisburg , Pa., and the other 
individual, Mr. Young, lived in Middleton, 
the home of Honest Simon, himself. The 
Mrs. Grimsley who figures in the record, was 
not only in the partnership, but is understood 
to be a sister of Mrs. Lincoln. 

THE TESTIMONY OF MR. FO.K. 

"Q. Are you personally a'-ciuainted with tlie I'lesideut 
of the United States? 
"A. 1 iini. 

"Q. How long have you been acquainteJ with hiui? 
"A. For nearly ten years. 



"Q. Are you acquainted with his hand writing? 

"A. Yes, sir. 

"Q. Do you know James L. Lamb, of Springfield, Il- 
linois? 

"A. I do, sir. 

"Q. Did not James L. Lamb, of Springfield, accompany 
you at one time to Maj. McKinstry's ofljce? 

"A. I met Mr. Lamb at Maj. McKinstry's olHce. I did 
not go with him there. 

"Q. On that occasion did not one or both of you present 
to Maj. McKinstry two letters, one from the President of 
tho United States, and one from the secretary of war? 

"A. Not on that occasion, sir. 

"Q. Did you or Mr. Lamb at any time present such let- 
tars? 

"A. Mr. Lamb told me he presented such letters. 

"Q. Were you not present on the occasion when these 
letters wore presented? 

"A. No. sir, I was not. I will state, however, I car- 
ried such letters for Mr. Lamb to Maj. McKinstry. 

"Q. Are not those two letters now shown to you, and 
m.arked 'A' and 'B,' the same presented on the occasion, 
referred to? 

"A. They are. 

"Maj. McKinstry here asked the Judge Advocate to 
read the letters referred to. 

"The Judge Advocate read as follows : 

Letter from Mr. Lincoln to Major McKinstry. 

Washington, Sept. 10, 1861. 
J. McKinstry, Brig. Gen'l. and Quartermaster, St. 

Louis: 

"Permit me to introduce James L. Lamb, Ksq. of Spring- 
field, Illinois. 

"I have known Mr. Lamb for a great many years. His. 
reputation for integrity and ability to cairj' out his en- 
gagements are both U' questioned, and I shall be pleased, 
if consistent with the public good, that you willmake pur- 
chases of him of any army supplies needed in j'our De- 
partment. Vour ob't servant, 

"A. LINCOLN." 

What under officer could resist such an ap- 
peal from the Commander-in-Chief of the army 
and navy? 

Honest Simon to Major McKinstry. 

" VV.(,suiNGT0N, Sept. 9, 1S61. 
J. McKinstry, Brigadier General and Quartermaster, 

St. Louis: 

Sir: — The bearer of this, .Tames L. Lamb, Esq., of 
Springfield, 111,, is the person;il friend of the President, as 
well as my oivn. He is a gentleman of integrity knd bu- 
siness capacity, [Simon was posted on " integrity,"] and 
any engagement entered into will, no doubt, be faithfully 
carried out. As Illinois is bearing her burden of the war, 
both in furnishing men and means, it is the desire of the 
Administration (an irresistible hint] that the citizens of 
that state should have a fair share of the Government pat- 
ronage dispensed in your department. If you can do 
anything for Mr. Lamb, in purchasing supplies, you will 
oblige, provided he will male Ids prices suit you. 
Your ob't servant, 

SIMON CAMERON, Pec'y of War." 

Thus, for the first time in the history of the 
Government, did the President of the Nation 
and his War Minister, combine to urge a pet 
and a partner of the household ou the favor 
of those who dispensed the patronage of the 
Government. 

"Q. Did you some"\inie in 1861. make an arrangement 
witli Lamb and others to supply the army with goods? 
"A. I made arrangements with Mr. Lamb. 

The Judge Advocate here objected to the 
letters becoming a part of the record, on the 
ground that they had no reference to any par- 
ly who was connected with any of the trans- 



82 > 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



actions covered by the charges and specifica- 
tions before the court. 

"Major McKinstrj' said he offered these letters to justify 
the course pursued by the accused in buying horses and 
other suppHes for the army from Illinoisians, without first 
advertising fur proposals, and further to show that the 
President of the United States and the Secretary of War 
knew ot the course that was adopted by the accused, in 
making his purchases, and that the Secretary of War left 
the matter of fixing the price to the accused. 

[Court closed — reopened and decided that 
the letters should become a part of the record.] 

"Q. state who the parties were who made such ar- 
rangement. 

"A. It was between Mr. Lamb and myself. 

"Q. Were not other parties associated with Mr. Lamb 
and yourself in the contemplated arrangement? 

"A. Yes, sir, so Mr. Lamb informed me. 

"Q. Who were they? 

"A. Mv conversation with Mr. Lamb was of a confi- 
dential character, and I do not wish to state it. 

"The Judge Advocate objected to witness answering the 
question, on the ground that it would be hear say evi- 
dence. 

"Maj. McKinstry said he would withdraw the question, 

"The Judge Advocate said he did not object to the ques- 
tion, and wished to have it remain on the record as it 
stood. 

"Maj. McKinstr}' — The accused submit that the ques- 
tion the witness is asked to state, is not a privileged ques- 
tion, and that it is not for the witness to decide whether 
or not he will answer it. The evidence sought by the 
question is to show the position and interest of other wit- 
nesses in behalf of the prosecution, who are either named 
at the foot of the specification or may be called as witness- 
es for the prosecution . 

"[Court cleared — reopened. Objection not sustained.] 

'•Question repeated. — A. Mr. E. BIy, of Ilarrisburg, 
Pa., and Mr. Young, of Middleton, Pa. They were the 
parties. 

"Q. Was it not stated by Mr. Lamb in your presence, 
that Mrs. Grimsley was oneof the jjarties? 

"A. No, sir. 

"Q. In the course of the interview, you and Mr. Lamb 
had with Maj. McKinstry, was not Mrs. Grimsley's name 
introduced to you? 

"A. No, sir. 

"Q. Did you not state to Maj. McKinstry that Mrs. 
Grimsley was to share the profits of your contemplated ar- 
rengement? 

"A. I did not state so in words. 

"Q. What did you state? 

"A. I did not convey anything to him in words on that 
subject. 

"Q. Did you convey any meaning by writing or other- 
wise? 

"A. I did. Now I will explain. Mr. Lamb and my- 
self joined in an application to Maj. McKinstry as Quar- 
termaster, to supply the government with a large amount 
of goods. After we had perfected our application, we 
were discussing the probable amount of profit we would 
^ make on the contract if we got it from Mafor McKinstry. 
After that we were telling over the gossip of our town, 
and this person's name was mentioned by me, and I pro- 
posed to Mr. Lamb to join him in presenting this person 
a sum of money. One day, while I was at Maj. McKin- 
Btry's oftice, trying to get a contract, (Mr. Lamb commit- 
ted to me the obtaining the contract, (Maj. McKinstry 
said to me : ' Before I give that order or contract, I want 
to know who are all the parties interested.' I wrote up- 
or a slip of paper all the parties interested, and handed it 
to him. I also wrote to Mr. Lamb and told him what 
Maj. McKinstry had said to me, and I said to him, ' You 
had better give to me all the letters you have. He did.-- 
I took them and showed thorn to Maj. McKinstry. 

"Q. Was not Mrs. Grimsley's name on the paper? 

"A. It was; and I want to say, I take the whole res- 
ponsibility of her name being on that paper. Mr. Lamb 
knew nothing of it. 

" Q. Who were the writers of those letters? 

" A. The President of the United States and the Sec- 
retary of War, Mr. Cameron, and Judge David Davis, of 
Bloomfield.Ill. 

"Here the cross examination was concluded, 



and witness obtained leave to go home, T^ith 
the understanding that he return on Monday 
und submit to a renewal of the direct exami- 
nation. 

" Court adjourned." 

Thus it will be seen, that the President had 
in view the helping his sister-in-law to a good 
profitable contract, while honest Simmon, had 
an eye to the partner of his son. Can we won- 
der at the brazen impudence of shoddy? 

CONGRESS CENSURES — THAT's ALL. 

The House of Representatives passed the fol- 
lowing resolve, which had no more effect than 
the baying of dogs at the moon: 

'■'■Resolved, That the practice of employing 
irresponsible parties, having no official connec- 
tion with the Government — the performance of 
public duties which may be properly performed 
by regular officers of the Government and of 
purchasing by private contract, supplies for the 
different departments, whsn open and for com- 
petition might be properly invited by reason- 
able advertisements for proper proposals, is in- 
jurious to the public service, and meets the 
manifest disapprobation of this House." 

ONE OF THE COOLEST FRAUDS. 

The Holt and Owen Investigation devel- 
oped some extraordinary frauds, from which 
expose a monster quarto volume could be filled. 
We have only room for the Fremont carbine 
fraud, which, for coolness and audacity, is 
without a parallel in the criminal police courts 
of any country. Fremont was cognizant of 
the fact that the Government had condemned 
5,000 carbines, in New York, as worthless, and 
ordered them to be sold at ^3.50 each. He 
telegraphs from St. Louis to one Simon Ste- 
vens, in New York, on the 5th of August, 
1861, for 5,000 carbines— just the number the 
Government had condemned. Stevens was 
poor and worthless, and telegraphed back that 
he had 5,000 carbin<5s, but for some excuse, 
he could not forward them without an advance 
of some §17,486 — just the amount required to 
purchase them of the Government — that he 
would sell them and immediately forward 
them to Fremont, at St. Louis, if the Govern- 
ment would advance this amount, which was 
accordingly done, when Stevens goes to the 
officer in charge of the carbines, pays for 
them at $3 50 each, and immediately bills 
them to the Government, p&r Gen. J. C. Fre- 
mont, at §22 each. For further particulars, 
we will let the committee speak of this trans- 
action in their own way. 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



323 



''Thus, the praposal actually was to sell to 
the Government, at $22 each, 5,000 of its own 
arms, the inteation being, if the offei* was ac- 
cepted, to obtain those arms hj purchase from 
the Government at $3 50 each! That intention 
was carried out [lacking four carbines only] 
the day after Gen. Fremont accepted the offer. 
It is evident, also, that the very fundf with 
which this purchase was affected ivere borrowed 
on the faith of the previous agreement to sell; so 
that if the purchase made by Gen. Fremont is 
to be regarded as a valid purchase by the 
United States, the Government sold one day 
for $17,486, arms which it had agreed the day 
before to repurchase for $109, 9 12, making 
a loss to the United States on the transaction 
of $92,426 — but virtually furnished the 
money to pay itself the §17,486, ivhich it re- 
ceived! " 

frauds! frauds!! frauds!!! 

Go where you .will — look which way you 
may — among the high and low — the learned 
and the illiterate —from the highest olScer of 
the Government down to the lowest scullion, 
who cries "Copperhead" for the small pickings 
that drip from officials kid gloved fingers, and 
you hear the cry of frauds, peculations and 
l)lunderings. Governors of states, state, coun- 
ty, town and ward officials — wherever the army 
worm goes, there will be fraud. It is but a 
short time since the Legislature of Kansas, 
intensely Republican — was forced to impeach 
their Republican Governor (Robinson) for 
gross frauds and other offences, together with 
the Secretary of State (J. W. Robinson) and 
State Auditor (Geo. S. Hillyer) for like affen- 
ces. 

In the name of an outraged and plundered 
people, where and when are these things to 
stop, and if not soon stopped, who can see a 
possibility oi sOiymgihG Republic? A fid how 
can the people expect to see the smaller thieves 
choked off, when they see so many glaring ex- 
amples by the highest in office? 

The President in answering the Congression- 
*al censure of Simon Cameron, declared he 
was responable for what his subordinates do. 
It needed not this declaration to show the peo- 
ple this fact, but the question is, how can his 
party, if they love honesty, as they pretend, 
favor the re-election of a man who has so much 
responsibility on his shoulders? 

HOLT ministers and STOLEN LIBRARIES. 

If the old apothegm is as correct as it used 
to be, making the "partaker as bad as the 
thief," what must we think of the New Eng- 



land clergymen, who are thus alluded to by the 
New York Christian Enquirer: 

"In several libraries of New England cler- 
gymen, we have seen choice volumes of great 
cost, bearing the names of Southern ministers 
to whom they still belong^ although they have 
been sent North as gifts from Yankee soldiers, 
who had appropriated them!" 

It might be "copperhead" impiety to com- 
ment on this fact, yet it is by no means an un- 
common affair. 

SWINDLING! SOLDIERS. 

The following from the N. Y. Tribune^ of 
April 1863, requires no comment : 

"A paymaster's clerk recently made this 
proposition to a capitalist of this city : "Lend 
me $20,000; I can make 15 per cent, a month 
on that amount, in this way: In our office we 
pay $200,000 a month to soldiers. The funds 
are not always on hand when the pay falls 
due. When they are not, I can generally pur- 
chase the soldiers' claims at 15 per cent, dis- 
count. In order to do it. I must resign my 
clerkship; but I have a brother in the office, 
and through him I can always learn when and 
how to invest. There is no risk of capital; the 
profits are sure! and I will share them with 
you." 

" We have this account from the person to 
whom the offer was made. He indignantly de- 
clined it as a swindle of the baseft kind — a 
proposition to cheat the government and de- 
fraud tiie soldiers. Other.s, however, were 
less scrupulous, and the clerk speedily affect- 
ed an arrangement with a firm considered res- 
pectable, and their joint operations are proba- 
bly in full tide of success." 

The question naturally arises, why did the 
Tribune suppress the name? Was it for fear it 
would hurt the party 9 

HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS SWINDLED. 

The New Hampshire Courier^ a reliable 
" Government" paper, says : 

" Contractors have carried on the war. The 
blood of the men, the groans of our wounded, 
the tears of the orphan and widow, have been 
coined into MONEY. They have swindled the 
government out of hundreds of millions. They 
have piled fortune upon fortune. As a distin- 
guished officer at AVashington said, ' All the 
operations of the war are managed by swin- 
dlers!'" 

Says the N. Y. Tribune., in speaking of the 
war: 

" It has saddled us with a debt that will 
take bread from the mouth of every laboring 
man's child for generations, and send millions 
hungry to bed." 



324 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



WE ABE ALL MORTGAGED. 

Mr. Spauldino, a Republican member of 
Congress from the Erie, N. Y., district, made 
a speech in Congress, in which he said: 

"Debt and taxation are the inevitable neces- 
sities of war. Every day that the vrar is pro- 
longed the debt is increased. The daily in- 
creasing debt of $2,500,000 must all be raised 
by taxation in some form, or the debt' will not 
be paid. The Government is spending at a 
fearful rate, the accumulations of former years 
of prosperity. Every dollar of debt contract- 
ed becomes a first mortgage upon the entire 
productive property of the country. It affects 
the farmer, laborer, mechanic, manufacturer, 
merchant, banker, commission merchant, pro- 
fessional man and retired capitalist. Every 
pound of tea, coffee, and sugar used, is taxed 
to pay the expenses of the war, and the per- 
sons using these articles of daily consumption 
pay the tax in the increased price. Every per- 
son that uses wine, brandy, whisky, beer, ci- 
gars, or tobacco, pays a portion of the war tax. 

"All necessary articles of dress, such as 
shoes, boots, hats and wearing apparel, are 
taxed in like manner, and all superfluous and 
unnecessary articles, such as silk, lace, dia- 
monds, and jewelry, are heavily taxed, and I 
would be glad to see the tax still further in- 
creased on them, in order to prevent, if possi- 
ble, their use at this time. Every person that 
rides upon the rail-roads, - reads newspapers, 
draws a check, or sends a telegraphic message 
is taxed for war purposes, but I need not furth- 
er enumerate the different modes in which eve- 
rybody is taxed every day to pay the expenses 
of the war. 

"This war debt is a mortgage alike on all 
the productive industry and property of Re- 
publicans, Democrats, Old-line Whigs. Con- 
servatives and Abolitionists." 

OUR national debt THE MEANS TO PAY IT. 

No true patriot would think the price too 
great, if a virtuous and economical use of 
every dollar in the nation, was required to 
save the old Union of our fathers, but in view 
of the foregoing blistering, damning facts of 
frauds by the hundreds of millions, the follow- 
ing prediction from the New York Tribune of 
January, 1864, is anything but pleasant to con- 
template. Some one in Washington had writ- 
ten t«' that sheet presenting the necessities of 
increasing the salaries of clerks, whereupon 
the editor remarks: 

"Now look here: 

"Our country is involved in a terrible civil 
war, which has plunged her into debt about 
fifteen hundred millions of dollars, and is n;w 
rolling up at least seven hundred and fifty mil- 
lions more per annum. We are likely to owe 
more rather than less than two thousand mil- 
lions 'when this cruel war is over,' and to be 



required to pay at least one hundred millions 
per annum as interest thereon. Add to this 
the inevitably enhanced military and naval 
armaments and expenses of our government, 
caused by this atrocious rebellion, and our 
current expenditures can hardly be brought 
below two hundred millions per annum, in- 
stead of the fifty to seventy millions that form- 
erly sufficed. This involves high taxes on ev- 
erything that will bear taxation — on the lux- 
ury and income of the rich, and on the cheap 
and humble enjoyments of the poor. We have 
hitherto been among the most lightly taxed 
people on earth; we shall hereafter rank next 
highest after Great Britain and perhaps 
France. 

"Such is the permanent prospect. For the 
present we are fighting for our nation's life, 
and the strain upon our resources and credit is 
fearful. We get on, and that is about all. We 
hope to get through; but blind confidence will 
not carry us through; it must be supplemented 
and justified by the most rigid economy. Yet 
we see men who should be foremost in thrift 
and providence contriving to plunge the gov- 
ernment into all manner of canal, railroad and 
other outlays for objects not indispensable to 
national triumph in our great struggle, pre- 
cisely as if we were at peace, with a full treas- 
ury and no debt! Are they stark mad? 

"But to the clerkships: 

"The present struggle imposes burdens on 
and exacts sacrifices from nearly every Amer- 
ican. If this war shall cost twenty-five hun- 
dred millions, somebody has to pay it. Yet 
almost everybody acts as though he ought not 
to shoulder a portion of the load! Manufac- 
turers say three per cent, on their products, 
with another dig at their incomes, is too much. 
Capitalists think it hard that, after paying tax- 
es on all their property and business, they 
should be called on tor three to five per cent, on 
their incomes in addition. Rum, tobacco and 
lager beer think the excise too hard on them. 
Business grumbles at stamps, license-fees, and 
all sorts of bit-by-bit exactions. And labor 
thinks it should have its wages raised to bal- 
ance the enhanced prices of nearly every thing 
that it buys for consumption. In short, every- 
body thinks the cost of this gigantic war ought 
to be borne by somebody else." 

According to Wendell Phillips, our pub- 
lic debt must be now quite three thousand miU 
lions, including amounts ascertained and un- 
ascertained. Indeed, we think when all the 
bills are settled, this amount will be enlarged, 
immensely. 

This is a monstrous sum, almost beyond the 
power of man to contemplate in detail. It 
would require one man, if the whole were in 
silver dollars, counting sixty per minute, and 
making ten hours per day, Sundays included, 
about 2,286 years (should he live so long) to 
count the whole sum. If the Government was 
required to pay it in monthly installments, it 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



325 



would require $250,000,000 to be paid every 
thirty days, or $8,333,333,33 each day. If the 
amount should be divided equally, acoording 
to population, among the Northern states, it 
would be $150 to every man, woman and 
child, and to ascertain the amount that would, 
on this hypothesis, be assigned to each state, 
county, town, &c., let the reader multiply the 
number of inhabitants in any given district by 
150. and he would have the probable sum 
which that district is mortgaged for — not whol- 
ly to sustain and save the Union — but largely 
to fill the pockets of thieves and public plun- 
derers. 

THE NEW CURRENCY — STAND FROM UNDER. 

Old salts say that when the gulls flock about 
and utter plaintive cries, that a storm is brew- 
ing. We see evidences of a storm in the mon- 
etary affairs ot the country in the plaintive 
cries of the bankers who are petitioning the 
Legislatures for "relief." When all is going 
smoothly, the bankers are quiet, but they are 
the first to snuflf danger from afiir, and when 
they invoke Legislative aid, then look out for 
squalls. We tell our readers to stand from 
under, for this bank barometer bodes a storm 
of dreadful fierceness. Already we see that 
greenbacks are to go "up to a premium, when 
all know that it takes just about $1 60 in 
in greenbacks to buy one in gold. Still 
greenbacks are to be quoted at a pre- 
mium, and why? Simply because of the 
rotten system of Mr. Chase, by which a por- 
tion of the greenbacks are to be withdrawn, 
and the government wild cat banking currency 
put afloat. This stuff will.be so low, that 
greenbacks in comparison will be at a premi- 
um. Call it what you like, and the result is the 
same, and to be correct, the matter should, and 
. probably soon will be, stated something like 
this: 

Greenbacks below jiar,.'^ 60 per cent. 

Common bank paper below Greenbacks, 10 " '• 

National Currency below common bank paper 25 '• " 

Mr. Chase, in his splendid "system" will 
soon have the counti-y in a pretty fix, because 
his "system" is nothing but an air bubble, and 
a very poor one at that, and it must burst the 
moment it is fairly blown up — simply because 
its "representative value" has been so unmer- 
cifully watered. Gold is but a representative of 
values — government bonds are but a represent- 
ative (and just now a remote one) of gold, 
The Banking Bonds are but a representative 



of Gi'feenbacks, while this new Ur''-' States 
currency is to be but a representative olg"vern- 
ment bonds. Thus, these new issues are only 
to be fourth cousins to a representative, which 
in fact, is just no security at all, for the nation- 
al debt is so ponderous now, that if the makers 
of this new currency should fail to redeem (and 
not one of them can) their notes would be value- 
less, because it would be out of the power of 
the government to redeem, by keeping their 
Bonds at par. Let us see how easy it will be 
to make a currency no better than unwashed 
paper rags, because it will stand on no available 
basis. 

A desires to start a bank'with the prefix "U. 
S." to it. He has just enough money to pay 
for tjje dies and to put up the "margin" 
[brokers understand this.] He goes to New 
York and offers the "per cent." to a Wall 
street broker to loan him greenbacks, with 
which to purchase $50,000 in 5-20's. 

This done, he issues the $50,000 minus the 
" margin," pays the same over to the broker, 
and is the proprietor of a bank of $50, 000, and 
so he may keep on till he has a bank of a miL 
lion circulation. But when called on to re- 
deem — what then? Why, he canH do it, for 
his capital is nothing but air buhbles, and 
the bonds are then upon the market. The first 
batch will beget the second, and so on, till the 
whole shall crumble beneath the ruins and the 
basis will become worthless for use, because it 
will be brokerized at the lowest figiire, and the 
result will be that the people will, in the end, 
suffer the loss. And all this to make a false 
popularity for Mr. Chase, who expects to have 
the credit of keeping up Greenbacks by bank- 
rupting the people on their second-rate repre- 
sentatives. To this are we coming, depend up- 
on it. ^ 

A HIGH official's TESTIMONY. 

Mr. McCulioch, the official Comptroler of the 
currency at Washington, has addressed a cir- 
cular to the officers of the new national banks, 
in which he cautions them to beware of the 
crash, as follows : 

^^ Bear constantly in mind, although the layal states ap- 
pear supejicially to be in a prosperous condition, that such 
is not the fyct. That while the government is engaged in 
the su|ipression ot a rebellion of unexampled fierceness and 
magnitude, and is constantly draining the country of its 
lalioring and producing population, and diverting its me- 
chanical industry from works of permanent value to the 
construction of implements of warfare; while cities are 
crowded, and the country is to the same extent depleted,and 
waste and extravagance prevails as they never before pre- 
vailed in the United States, the nation, whatever may be 
the external indication, is not prospering. 



326 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL, TEXTS 



'•The war in which wi; are involved is a stern n^-essity, | 
and must bo prosecuted for the preservation of tlie covorn- 
ment, nomatter whatm.iy be its cost; but theconntri/ will 
imqnestionably he the poorer everyday it iscoidiimerl. The 
seeming prosperity of the loyal states is owing mainly to 
the large expenditures of the government and the redund- 
ant currency which these expenditures seem to render ne- 
cessary . 

"Keep these facts constantly in mind, asd manage the 
affairs of your respective banks with a perfect conscious- 
ness that the apparent prosperity of the country will be 
proved to be unreal when the war is closed, if not before; and 
be prepared, by careful management of the trust commit- 
ted to you, to help to save the nation from a financial col- 
lapse, instead ot lending your influence to make it more 
certain and more severe." 

To a shrewd, practiced banker's eye, the 
true meaning of these hints is simply this: be 
careful and save youi-selves when the crash 
comes — for come it will — for the basis of your 
currency will be of no avail. In what other 
light can this be read? Let the people be 
warned in time. The common "pet banks'' 
already see the storm, and are preparing to 
take in sail. Keep a constant eye to the shore, 
and let no ignus fatuus lead you on to the 
breakers of destruction. A currency that can- 
not fall back on a substantial basis is good for 
nothing. This move of Mr. Chase is only 
shifting the onus of the forthcoming crash 
from his greenback system to a personal, and 
infinitely worse one— keep an eye on the alti- 
tude of gold. The tornado is not far distant. 

EEPUBLICAN THIEVES AND PLUNDERERS- 

Mr. CovoDE and his Kepublican Congres- 
sional Investigating Committee uttered a terri- 
ble wailing — almost equal to one of the old- 
time Kansas shrieks — over • the lamentable 
fact, that there were so many of their political 
brethren fattening by means of steals and dis- 
honest contracts, upon the griefs and miseries 
of their country. Even the President himself 
could write to Gen. Fremont, when in com- 
mand at St. Louis, begging him to give a Gov- 
ernment contract to a hungry and clamorous 
expectant. Cameron and Stanton could 
make supply contracts, and suffer the country 
to be swindled out of millions of the public 
treasure; the Secretary of the Navy could al- 
low his brother-in-law a high per centage for 
the purchase of vessels for the use of the gov- 
ernment, and thus enable him to pocket hun- 
dreds of thousands of dollars. Chase had his 
Jot Cooke and other favorites, who are 
pocketing their hundreds of thousands, if not 
millions of dollars a year; and so it goes, 
throughout all the departments of the public 
service. Such is the general understanding 
everywhere, that government contracts are al- 



most universally of the "shoddy" character, 
that even novels and poems, not to speak of the 
thousand of newspaper and magazine squibs 
and protests are devoted to the ridicule of the 
shoddy contracts and shoddy cheats, so alarm- 
ingly prevalent in the country. The big bugs 
are getting rich, and the smaller fry are fast 
following suit, in imitation of their heartless 
and pampered superiors. And the Covodes 
shed crocodile tears over this stupendous fat- 
tening process on the sufferings and miseries 
of the country. 

The New York Custom House, under the 
sole management of the most rabid sect of 
modern Republicans, has become so much a 
stench and by-word of reeking corruptian — 
even to supplying, by connivance, the rebels 
with much-needed supplies, that even the cor- 
rupt Republican congressional leaders have 
felt constrained to appoint an investigating 
committee, which has already discovered some 
'big leads' of Republican rascality; while 
another investigating committee, devoted to 
more general and miscellaneous Republican 
robberies and rascalities, has also been ap- 
pointed by Congress. 

Two or three years ago, a batch of Republi- 
can Congressmen, Matteson, of New York, 
among them, who had accepted bribes, and had 
failed to keep their guilt as well concealed as 
their fellows, were expelled; and now the hy- 
pocritical Senator Hale, of New Hampshire, 
acknowledges to having received a rich bribe 
— he softens the thing down to a "/te" — and 
the Senate had his case on the tapis. Restive 
under their development, and as misery loves 
company, Hale concludes to pitch into the 
Secretary of the Navy, and dig out some rich 
rascalities in that festering Department of cor- 
ruption, as we learn from the following extract 
from the New York York Tribune of the 26th 
of January, 1864: 

"On motion of Mr. Hale, his resolution, 
asking for an investigation of the affairs of the 
Navy Department, was referred to a special 
committee of three, consisting of Senators 
Hale, Grimes and Buckalew, with power to 
send for persons and papers. Mr. Hale gave 
the statistics of the annual expenditures of the 
naval powers of Europe, excluding Italy and 
Denmark. They amounted last year to §139,- 
000,000; so that we are now called upon to 
spend this year more than the combined world, 
with the exception of Italy and Denmark. The 
naval expenses of England and France during 
the Crimean war amounted to $350,000,000, 
for a period of three years and five months. 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



327 



We are called upon to spend $40,000,000 more 
per annum than this." 

Whether Hale will really make a thorough 
investigation, and lay bare the schemes to 
plunder the treasury and impoverish the peo- 
ple, or whether some of the men having mam- 
moth contracts, and already gorged with green- 
backs as the result of past rich plunderings, 
will quiet him with "a fee," remains to be 
seen. 

Verily, we live in great times — great shoddy 
contracts — great pampered and rotten ofScials 
and great ' 'fees'* to propitiate the men of easy 
virtue who can, by nods and winks and favors, 
secure the ear of the corrupt dispensers of 
power and patronage under the present admin- 
istration. Such wholesale, unblushing rascal- 
ities are unparalleled in the history of the 
world. 

5? Reader, the chapter of frauds is before you, 
compressed into the closest possible dimen- 
sions. AVe are not responsible for the facts, 
neither have we originated the testimony — it is 
all from Republican sources — the crime and the 
proof are theirs. Fiead then, and determine 
whether the country is safe in such hands. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

WARNINGS AND ADYICE OF AMEIIICAN STATES- 
MEN, Ac. 

From Washington's Farewell Address. ..Jackson's Fare- 
well Address. ..By Daniel Webster. ..By Henry Clay... 
By Patrick Henry... From Webster's Great Oration... 
Further from Jaclcson's Farewell Addresses. ..Miidisou 
on the Liberty of the Press. ..Mr. Seward on Free Speech 
...Jefferson on the Plea of Necessity. ..John Adams on 
Arbitrary Power. ..Ex-President Filmore on the Negro 
Question. ..Gov. Seymour's Patriotic Letter. ..Senator 
Harris of New York, on the Despotism of Conscriptions 
...Rob't J. Walker on State Suicide. ..Sen. Trumbull on 
the Tyrant's Plea. ..Gen. McClellan on Constitution and 
Christian Civilization. ..Sen. Crittenden on the cause of 
our Troubles... President Harrison on the Rights of the 
States. ..Montesquieu and Jefferson on Preservation of 
Liberty. ..James Madison on same. ..Gen. Harrison at Ft. 
Meigs....J. Q. Adams on the "Link of Union". ..The 
Father of the Constitution on Confiscation. ..List of Mem- 
bers and Delegates in Congress, &c. 

SOLEMN WARNINGS AND ADVICE OF AMERI- 
CAN STATESMEN, &C. 

We are aware that the warnings of those 
great and illustrious men whose joint sacrifices 
secured to us the blessings of liberty, are now 
ignored by the pampered shoddyites; still, as 
there is yet a noble few who have not lost all 
regard for the teachings and wisdom of the 
past, we insert this last chapter, to stand as 
the "moral," or warning to that which pro- 
ceeds it. Read, and reflect. 



[From Washington's Farewell Address.] 
" It is important that the habit of thinking 
in a free country should inspire caution in 
those intrusted with its administration, to con- 
fine ourselves within their respective constitu- 
tional spheres, avoiding, in the exercise of the 
powers of one department, to encroach upon 
another. The spirit of encroachment tends to 
consolidate the powers of all the departments 
in one, and thus create, whatever the form of 
government, a real despotism." 

[From Jefferson's Works, by H. A. Washington, Vol. 7 
pp. 223, 293. 

"I see with the deepest affliction the rapid 
strides with which the federal branch of our 
government is advancing toward usurpation of 
all the rights reserved to the states, and the 
consolidation in itself of all power, foreign 
and domestic, and that, too, by constructions 
which, if legitimate, leave no limits to their 
power." 

[From Jackson's Farewell Address, March 3, 1837.] 

"Each state has the unquestionable right to 
regulate its own internal concerns according 
to its own pleasure; and while it does not in- 
terfere witn the rights of the people of other 
States, or the rights of the Union, every state 
must be the sole judge of the measures proper 
to secure the safety of its citizens and promote 
their happiness; and all efforts on the part of 
the people of the state to cast odium on their 
institutions, and all measures calculated to 
disturb their rights of property, or to put in 
jeopardy their peace and internal ti-anquility, 
are in direct opposition to the spii-it in which 
the Union was founded, and must endanger 
its safety. Motives of philanthropy may be as- 
signed to their unwarrantable interference, and 
weak men may persuade themselves for a mo- 
ment that they are laboring in the cause of hu- 
manity, and asserting the rights of the human 
race; but every one, upon sober reflection, 
will see that nothing but mischief can come 
from these improper assaults upon the feelings 
and rights of others. Rest assured that the 
men found busy in the work of discord are not 
worthy of confidence, and deserve the strong- 
est reprobation." 

[From Daniel Webster's Works, vol. 7, p. l:i4.J 
"Through all the history of the contest for 
liberty, executive power has been considered a 
lion which must be caged. So far from being 
the object of enlightened popular trust — so far 
from being considered the natural protector of 
popular right — it has been dreaded as the great 
source of its danger." 

[From the great Speech of Henry Clay against the insidi- 
ous policy of Abolitionists.] 

' 'Abolitionism! With Abolitionists the rights 
of property are nothing; the deficiency of the 
powers of the General Government is nothing; 
the acknowledged and incontestable powers of 
the states are nothing; a dissolution of the 
Union and the overthrow of a government in 
which are concentrated the hopes of the civi- 
lized world, are nothing; a single idea has 
taken possession of their minds, and onward 



f 



328 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



they pursue it, overlooking all barriers, reck- 
less and regardless of all consequences. 

[From the great Speech of Piitrick Henry on the Consti- 
tution.] 

"Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury 
and the liberty of the press necessary for your 
liberty? Will the abandonment of the most 
sacred rights tend to the security of your lib- 
erty? Liberty, the greatest of all earthly 
blessings! Give us that precious jewel, and 
you may take everything else. 

rFrom the great Oration of Paniel Webster on free speech 
in 1814. J 

"Free speech is a home-bred right, a fire- 
side privilege. It has ever been enjoyid in 
every house, cottage and cabin in the nation. 
It is not to be drawn into controversy. It is 
as undoubted as the right of breathing the air 
and walking on the earth. It is a right to be 
maintained in peace and in war. It is a right 
which cannot be invaded without destroying 
constitutional liberty. Hence this right should 
be guarded and protected by the freemen of 
this country with a jealous care unless they 
are prepared for chains and anarchy." 

[From Jackson's Farewell Address, lSo7.] 
"The legitimate authority of the govern- 
ment is abundantly sufficient for all the pur- 
poses for which it was created; and its powers 
being expressly enumerated there can be no 
justification for claiming anything beyond 
them. Every attempt to exercise power be- 
yond these limits should be promptly and firm- 
ly opposed; for one evil example will lead to 
other measures still more mischievous; and if 
the principle of constructive powers, or sup- 
posed advantages, or temporary circumstances, 
shall ever be permitted to justify the assump- 
tion of power not given by the Constitution, 
the General Government will, before long, ab- 
sorb all the powers of legislation, and you will 
have, in effect, but one consolidated govern- 
ment." 

MR. MADISON ON THE LIBERTY OF THE 
PRESS. 

"The last remark will not be understood as 
claiming for the State Governments an immu- 
nity greater than they have heretofore enjoyed. 
Some degree of abuse is inseparable from a pro- 
per use of everything, and in no instance is 
this more true than that of the press. It has 
accordingly been decided by the practice of 
the states, that it is better to leave a few of its 
noxious branches to their luxuriant growth, 
than by pruning them away, to injure the vigor 
of those yielding the proper fruits, and can 
the wisdom of this policy be doubted by any 
one who reflects, that to the press alone, cheq- 
uered as it is with abuses, the world is indebt- 
ed for all the triumphs which have been gained 
by reasoh and humanity over error and oppres- 
sion; who reflects that to the same benificent 
source the United States owe much of the 
lights which conduct them to the rank of a free 
and independent nation! and which have im- 



proved their political system into a shape so 
auspicious to their oppressors! Had sedition 
acts forbidden every publication that might 
bring the constituted agents of the Govern- 
ment into contempt, or "DISREPUTE,' or 
that might excite the hatred of the people 
against the authors of unjust or pernicious 
measures been uniformly enforced against the 
press, might not the United States been lan- 
guishing at this day under the infirmities of a 
sickly confederation — might they not possibly 
been miserable colonies, groaning under a for- 
eign yoke. — Elliott^ s Debates, Vol. 4, p. 571. 

MR. SEWARD ON FREE SPEECH. 

On the 7th of August, 1856, Mr. Seward, 
in a speech in the U. S. Senate, used the fol- 
lowing language : 

" Where on earth is there a free government 
where the press is shackled and speech is 
strangled ? 

" When the Republic of France was subver- 
ted by the First Consul, what else did he do 
but shackle the press and stifle speech ? 

"When the second Napoleon restored the 
Empire on the ruins of the Republic of France 
what else did he do than to shackle the press 
and strangle debate? 

" When Santa Anna seized the Government 
of Mexico, and converted it into a dictator- 
ship, what more had he to do than to shackle 
the press and stifle political debate?" 

JEFFERSON OK THE PLEA OF ■' NBCESSIT Y." 

" Those to whom power is delegated should 
be held lo a strict accountability to their con- 
stitutional oath of office. The pleaof neces«t7y 
is no excuse for a violation of them." 

JOHN ADAMS ON ARBITRARY POWER. 

"Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the 
bud, is the only maxim which can ever pre- 
serve the liberties of any people. Wheii the 
peojile give way , their deceivers, betrayers and 
destroyers press upon them so fast that there is 
no resisting afterwards. The nature of the en- 
croachments is to grow every day more en- 
croaching; like a cancer, it eats faster and 
faster every hour." 

EX-PRESIDENT FILMORE ON THE NEGHO QUES- 
TION. 

"I am heart and soul with you in the object 
you have in view. Enough of treasure and 
blood have already been spent upon the negro 
question I am fully persuaded that the un- 
wise and untimely agitation of this subject 
gives strength to the rebellion, and will cost 
millions of treasure and thousands of lives; 
and that there is no hope for anything else, 
but to restore the Union as it was, and the 
Constitution as it is. That all efforts for any- 
thing else must end in abortion, anarchy and 
dissolution." — Letter to Connecticut meeting, 
1862. 



SCRAPS FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK. 



329 



LETTER PROM GOV. SEYMOUR TO AN IMMENSE 
DEMOCRATIC MEETING IN ORANGE COUNTY, 
NEW YORK. 

"Executive Department, ] 
Albaxt, June 29, ISGo. j" 

"Gentlemen: I regret that I cannot attend 
the meeting to be held at Middletown. Orange 
county, on the 2d of July; my engagements 
are such, that I cannot gratify myself by being 
present on that occasion. 

"Our motto must be at this time, that we 
will do our duty and demand our rights, we will 
do every duty demanded by the/"^"stituted au- 
thorities acting within the lini' —-'"«*'', ja .1 
risdiction, whether we like oi' 
policy. We will demand all ou^Tf" 
authorities, whether they like or dlglike such 
demands. 

"It is now apparent to all, that our country 
can only be saved by harmonious action among 
the people of the North. v^It is equally clear 
that harmonious action can only be had upon 
one platform; and that platform is — the Union, 
the Constitution and respect for the laws. 
Harmony can never be made by threats, de 
nunciations, or unconstitutional arrests of per- 
sons or seizure of property. It is easier for the 
Government to impose such illegal practices, 
than it is for a free people to submit to them. 

"God grant that the afflictions of our coun- 
try may teach our rulers this simple truth, and 
that these same afflictions may rouse in the 
hearts of our people the same patriotism and 
firmness in the defense of our liberty, which 
animated our fathers in the Revolutionary 
struggle. 

" yours truly. UORATIO SEYMOUR . " 

8ENAT0E HARRIS, OF NEW YORK, ON THE DES- 
POTISM OF CONSCRIPTIONS. 

"England with her many wars, and often 
scarcity of men, never resorted to this despotic 
measure. It was a mode of raising armies 
only used by despots, but never by republican 
governments, and the principle, if adopted, 
would provide large standing armies, which 
almost inevitably lead to despotism. In a gov- 
ernment of delegated power, and which rested 
upon the consent of the governed, it was inex- 
pedient and unnecessary. 

"Congress had not the power under the con- 
stitution, thus to destroy the militia of the 
states, which the constitution provided for as a 
reserved force of the Union. If this measure 
were adopted, there would be centralized pow- 
er." — Speech in Senate on Conscription Bill. 

ROBERT J. WALKER ON STATE SUICIDE. 

" Will civil civil war preserve or restore the 
Union ? * * Can a vanquished state, 
even if she can be vanquished, ever again be- 
come a member of the Federal Union ? No, 
my countrymen; let us learn, ere it be too 
late, that this never can be a Union of victor 
and vanquished, of sovereign and subject 
states, but must be a Union of equals, which is 
the Union of th: ''institution. It must be a 



cordial and fraternal Union, founded on inter- 
est, and cemented by affection. This was the 
Union founded by Washington and Franklin, 
and the patriots and statesmen of the Revolu- 
tion; and that is the only Union that can be 
preserved and perpetuated. You might, per- 
haps, by superior forccj drench in blood the 
fields of a sister state. You might, perhaps, 
wrap her villages in flames; but you could 
never afterwai-ds restore such a state to the 
Union established by the Constitution. No, 
fellow citizens; when the star of the statb 

IS extinguished in BLOOD, IT CAN NEVER 
£:*TN IN THE BANNER OF THE UnION, 

'^■"ie an equal, a sovereign^ 
-Sjpeech in 1850. 



■ of SU'J/ 



or a 4...,(^,„t.itfjt^t.t -- 



SENATOR TRUMBTLL ON THE TTRANT's PLEA. 

"Necessity is the plea of tyrants, and if our 
Constitution ceases to operate the moment a 
person charged with its observance thinks there 
is a necessity to violate it, it is of little value. 
* * We are fighting to maintain the Consti- 
tution, and it especially becomes us in appeal- 
to the people to come to its rescue, not to vio- 
late it ourselves. Ilotv are wc letter than the 
rebels if both alike set at naught the Constitu- 
tion. — Speech at Chicago, June, 1863. 

GEN. MC'CLELLAN ON CONSTITUTION AND 
CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION. 

"The General commanding takes this occa- 
sion to remind the officers and soldiers of the 
army that we are engaged in supporting the 
constitution and laws of the United States, and 
in suppressing rebellion against their authori- 
ty; that we are not engaged in a war of rapine 
revenge or subjugation; that this is not a con- 
test agaipst populations, but a war against 
armed forces; that it is a struggle carried on 
within the State, and should be conducted by 
us upon the highest principles known to chris- 
tian civilization." — Address to the Army. 

SENATOR CRITTENDEN ON THE CaUSE OF CUB, 
TROUBLES. 

' ' What has brought this mighty change ? — 
What has done it, Mr. Speaker ? Do not we 
all know ? Can there be any doubt on the 
subject ? It has been our infidelity to the 
pledges made to the people. It has been be- 
cause of the reckless course of the dominant 
party. * * * * * 

" If we want to get back the Union how 
must we do it ? We must change our policy. 
***** 

" Why do not the people have the same en- 
thusiasm in the war, that they had at first ? — 
Then they put a million of men in the field. — 
The country is still in peril, more than at first, 
and why is not our army of two millioa 
men now put into the fild? It is only because 
of the bad policy by which you have established 
the dogmas of the abolitionists. '^ — From his 
last Speech. 



S30 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



SaESlDENT HAREISON ON THE RIGHT3 OF THE 
STATES. 

*'The citizens of each state unite in their 
persons all the privileges which that character 
eonfers, and all they may claim as citizens of 
the United States; but in no case can the same 
person act as citizen of two separate states, and 
he is therefore positively precluded from any 
iaterference with the reserved powers of any 
state but that of which he is for Ihe time being 
a citizen. 

*'Our confederacy is perfectly illustrated by 
tlie terms and principles governing a copart- 
nership. There a fund of power is to be exer- 
cised under the direction of the joint counsels 
of the allied members, but that which has been 
reversed by the individual members is intangi- 
ble by the common government or the individ- 
sal members comprising it. Experience has 
abundantly taught us that the agitation by cit- 
izens of one part of the Union of a subject not 
confided to the general governmen is product- 
ive of no other consequences than bitterness, 
alienation, discord, and injury to the very 
cause which is intended to be advanced. — See 
his Inaugural. 

" copperhead" sayings. 

"The enjoyment of liberty, and even its sup- 
port and preservation, consists in every man's 
being allowed to speak his thoughts, and lay 
open his sentiments." — Montesquieu. 

"The supremacy of the civil over the mili- 
tary authority; economy iu the public expense, 
that labor may be lightly burthened; the hon- 
est payment of our debts, and sacred preser- 
vation of the public faith; the encouragement 
of agriculture and commerce as its handmaid; 
the diffusion of information and arrangement 
of all abuses at the bar of public reason. 

"Freedom of religion; freedom of the press; 
freedom of the person under the protection of 
the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impar- 
tially* selected. These principles form the 
bright constellation which has gone before us, 
and guided cur steps through an age of revolu- 
tion and reformation. The wisdom of our sages, 
and blood of our heroes have been devoted to 
their attainment; they should be the creed of 
onr political faith, the text of civic instruction; 
the loadstone by which we try the services of 
those we trust, and should we wander from 
them in moments of error and alarm, let us 
hasten to retrace our steps, and to regain the 
road which alone leads to peace, liberty and 
safety." — Thos. Jtffasori 

''^ To support the constitution which is the 
cement of ihe Union, as well in its limitations 
as in its authorities; to respect the rights and 
authorities reserved to the states, and to the 
people, as equally incorporated with, and es- 
sential to the success of the general system, to 
avoid the slightest interference with the rights 
of conscience, or the functions of religion, so 
■wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction; to 
preserve in their full energy, the other salu- 



tary provisions in behalf of private and per- 
sonal rights, and the freedom of the press." — 
James Madison. 

GEKEKAL HARRISON ON ENCROACHMENTS OP 
POWER. 

" The old-fashioned republican rule is to 
watch the government. See that the govern- 
ernmeut does not acquire too much power. — 
Keep a check upon your rulers. Do this, and 
your liberty is safe. And if your efforts should 
result successfully, and I should be placed in 
the presidential chair, I shall invite a recur- 
rence to the old republican rule, to watch the 
administration, and to condemn all its acts 
which are not iu accordance with the strictest 
mode of republicanism. Our rulers, fellow- 
citizens, must be watched. Power is insinuat- 
ing. Few men are satisfied with less power 
than they can obtain. If the ladies whom I 
see around me were near enough to hear me, 
and of sufiScient age to give an experimental 
answer, they would tell you that no lever is 
satisfied with the first smile of his mistress. 

" It is necessary, therefore, to watch, not 
the political opponents of an administration, 
but the administration itself, and to see that it 
keeps within the bounds of the Constitution 
and the laws ,of the land." — Speech at Fort 
Meigs., 1840. 

JOHN Q. ADAMS ON THE "LINK OF UNION." 

[Adams before the New York Historical Society, 1839.] 
"But the indissoluble link of Union between 
the people of the several states of this confed- 
erated nation is, after all, not in the right, but 
in the heart. If the day should ever come 
(may heaven avert it) when the affections of 
the people of these states shall be alienated 
from each other, when the fraternal spirit shall 
give way to cold indifferenje, or collisions of 
interest shall fester into hatred, the bands of 
political association will not long hold togeth- 
er parties no longer attracted by the magnet- 
ism of concilliated interests and kindly sym- 
pathies; and far better will it be for the peo- 
ple of the disunited states to part in friend- 
ship from each other, than to be held together 
by constraint." 

THE FATHER OF THE CONSTITUTION ON CON- 
FISCATION. 

"I was struck with surprise when I heard 
him (Mr Wythe) express himself alarmed 
with respect to the emancipation of slaves. — 
Let me ask, if they (the North) should even 
attempt it, if it will not be a usurpation of 
power. There is no power to warrant it in 
that paper (the Constitution.) If there be I 
know it not. But why should it be done? — 
Says the Honorable gentleman, for the gene- 
ral welfare: it will infuse strength into our 
system. Can any member of this Committee 
suppose that it (emancipation) will increase 
our strength? Can any one believe that the 
American Councils will come into a measure 
which will strip them of their property, and 



SCRAPS FROM UY SCRAP-BOOK. 



331 



discourage and alienate the affections of five- | 
thirtenths of tlie Union? Why was nothing of 
this sort arrived at before? I believe such fHa 
idea never entered into any American heart, 
norfdo I believe it ever will enter into the 
heads of those gentlemen who substitute un- 
supported suspicions for reasons. — Mr. 3Iadi- 
son in the Convention — Elliott's Delates, v 
3, p. 621. 

xxxviiith congress. 

THE SEXATE. 
Politics . — R . — laiHcal . C . — conservat i vu . 



CONNECTICUT. 

Term, Expire-. 

L. S. Foster R 1867 

James Dixon C 1S09 

CALIFOENIA 

J. A.McDougal C 1867 

John Ctonness C 1869 

DELAWARE. 

TV. Saulsbury C 180.5 

*Jas. A. Bayard C 1SG9 

INDIANA. 

Henry S. Lane R 1807 

T. A. Hendricks C 1869 

ILLINOIS . 

W. A. Kichardson...C 1865 
L.Trumbull R 1867 

IOWA. 

Jas. W. Grimes R 186.5 

Jas. Harlan V 1S67 

KENTUCTT. 

L. W. Powell C 186.5 

Garrett Davis 1867 

KANSAS. 

S.C. Pomeroy R 18C5 

Jas. H. Lane R 1867 

MARYLAND. 

Th09. H. Hicks C 1867 

Keverdy Johnson C 1869 

MAINE. 

W. P. Fessenden R 1865 

L. M. Morrill R 1869 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Henry Wilson R 1865 

Chas. Sumner R 1809 

MICHIGAN. 

J. M. Howard .R 1865 

Z. Chandler R 1869 

MINNESOTA. 

B. S. Wilkinson R ISO- 
Alex. Ramsay R 1869 

Kadical 

Conservative 



. — peece. 

MISSOURI. 

Terni expires. 

B. G. Brown R 1867 

J. B. Henderson C 1S69 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

John P. Hale R 1805 

Daniel Clark R 1867 

NEW YORK. 

Ira Harris R 1867 

E.D. Morgan C 1869 

NEW JERSEY. 

J.C. TenEyck C 1867 

Wm. Wright C 1869 

OHIO. 

Benj. F. Wade R 1865 

John Sherman R 1867 

OREGON. 

Benj. F. Harding C 1365 

Jas. W. Nosmith C 1867 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

Edgar Cowan C 1867 

C. K. Buekalew C 1869 

RHODE ISLAND. 

H. B. Anthony R 1S65 

Wra. Sprague R 1869 

VERMONT. 

Jacob CoUamer R 1S67 

Solomon Foot .8 1869 

VIRGINIA. 

J. S. Carlile 1865 

fL. J. Bowden C 1809 

WISCONSI.V. 

T, O.Howe R 1867 

J. R. Doolittle R 1869 

WEST VIRGINIA. 

W. T. Willey R 1865 

P. G. Van Winkle. ../J 1869 



Total. 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



CONNECTICUT , 

1 Henry C. Peming R 

2 James E. English C 

3 Aug. Brandegee R 

4 JohnH. Hubbard C 

CALIFORNIA. 

(Elected at large.) 

Thos. B. Shannon R 

Wm. Iligby R 

Cornelius Cole -R 

DELAWARE. 

1 N. B. Smithers R 

ILLINOIS. 

1 Isaac N. Arnold R 

2 John P. Farnsworth...iS 

3 Elihu B. Washburne..ie 

4 Chas. M. Harris C 

5 Owen Lovijoy R 

6 Jessie 0. Norton R 

7 JohnR. Eden C 

* Resigned, 



ILLINOIS — (concluded.) 

John T. Stuart C 

Lewis W. Ross C 

Anthony L. Knapp C 

James C. Robinson C 

Wm. R. Morrison C 

Wm. J. Allen C 

Jas. C. Allen(at large).. C 

INDIANA. 

John Law C 

James A. Craven.s C 

a. W. Harrington C 

Wm. S. Holmes C 

George W. Juliau R 

Ebenezer Dumont R 

Daniel W. Voorhees C 

Goodlove S. Orth R 

Schuyler Colfax R 

Joseph K. Edgerton....C 

James V. McDowell C 

jDeceased. 



IOWA. 

1 James F. Wilson R 

2 Hiram'Price R 

3 William B. Allison R 

4 James B. Grinnell R 



NEW YORK — continued 

25 Daniel Morris R 

26 Giles M. Hotchkiss R 

27 R. B. Van Valkenburg.iZ 

28 Fretuiandlark R 



5 John A. Kasson R 29 Aug. Frank. 

6 A. W. Hubbard R " "" ~ 

KENTUCKY. 

1 Lucien Anderson C 

2 Geo. H. Teaman '' 

3 Henry Grider V 

i Aaron Harding C 

Robert Mallory C 

6 Green Clay Smith R 

7 Bi-utus J. Clay C 

8 Wm. H. Randall C 

9 Wm. H. Wadswoith...C 

KANSAS. 

1 A. C. Wilder R 

MAINE. 

1 Lorenzo D. Sweat C 

2 Sidney Perham R 

3 James G. Blaine R 

4 John H. Rice R 

4 Frederick A. Pike R 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

1 Thomas D. Eliot R 

2 Oakes Ames R 



30 John Ganson C 

1 Ruben E. Fenton R 

NEW JERSEY. 

1 JohnF. Starr R 

2 Geo. Middleton C 

3 Wm. G. Steele C 

4 Andrew J. Rogers C 

5 Nehemiah Perry C 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

1 Daniel Marcey C 

2 Edward H. Rollins R 

3 Jas. W. P.'itterson R 

OHIO. 

1 Geo. H. Pendleton C 

2 Alexander Long C 

3 Roberto. Schenck R 

4 J. F. McKinney C 

5 Frank C. LeBlond C 

6 Chilton A. White C 

7 Samuels. Cox C 

8 William Johnson C 

9 Warren P. Noble C 



Alexander H. Rice R 10 James M. Ashley., 



.R 



4 Samuel Hooper R 

5 JohnB. Alley R 

6 Dan'l W. Gooch R 

1 Geo. S. Boutwell R 

8 John D. Baldwin R 

9 Wm. B. Washburn. ..ii 



11 Wells A. Hutchins C 

12 Wm. E. Fink C 

13 John O'Neill C 

14 George Bliss C 

15 James R. Morrisa C 

16 Joseph W. White C 



10 Henry L. Dawes R 17 Eph. R. Eckley R 



MARYLAND. 

1 John A. J. Creswell C 

2 Edwin H. Webster C 



H. W.Davis R 

Francis Thomas C 

B. G. Harris P 

MISSOURI. 

F. P. Blair, jr R 



18 Ruf. P. Spaulding R 

19 John A. Garfield R 

OREGON 

1 John B. McBride C 

PENNSYLVANIA 

1 Samuel J. Ranaall—.C 

;2 Charles O'Neill ...R 

'3 Leonard Myers R 



Henry T. Blow R ;4 W"m. D. Kelley R 



3 JohnG. Scott C 

4 J. W. McCIerg R 

5 S. H. Boyd R 

6 A. A. King C 

7 Benjamin Loaa R 

8 W. A. Hall C 

9 James S. RoUins C 

MICHIGAN. 

1 F. C. Be.aman R 



5 M. Russell Thayer R 

6 John G. Stiles G 

7 JohuM. Broomall R 

8 Syd'm E. Aucona C 

9 Thad. Stevens R 

10 Myer Strouse G 

11 Philip Johnson G 

12 Charles Denison ....C 

13 Henry M. Tracy R 



2 Charles Upson R 14 Wm. H. Miller G 



3 J. W. Longyear R 

4 F. W. Kellogg R 

5 A. C. Baldwin C 

6 John F. Driggs R 

MINNESOTA. 



15 Jcseph Bailey G 

10 A. II Coftroth C 

IT Archd. McAlister G 

18 James T. Hale R 

19 G. W. Scofield R 



1 William Windom R 20 Amos Myers R 

2 I. L. Donnelly R 21 John L. Dawson G 



NEW YORK. 

1 H. G. Stebbins C 

2 M. Kalbfleisch C 

3 Moses F. Odoll C 

4 Benjamine Wood P 

5 Fernando Wood P 

6 Elijah Ward C 

7 JohnW. Chandler C 

8 James Brooks P 

9 Anson Herrick P 

10 Wm. Radford C 

11 Chas. H. Winfield G 

12 Homar A. Nelson C 

13 John B. Steele C 

14 J. L. V. Piuyn C 

15 JolmA. Griswold C 

16 Orlando Kellogg R 

17 CalvenT. Hulburd C 

18 James M. Marvin C 



22 J. K. Moorhead R 

23 Thos. Williams R 

24 Jesse Lazear G 

RHODE ISLAND. 

1 T. A. Jenkes R 

2 N. F. Dixon R 

VERMONT. 

1 F. E. Woodbridge R 

2 Justin S. Morrill R 

3 Portus Baxter R 

WISCONSIN. 

1 James S. Brown C 

•2 I. C. Sloan R 

3 Amasa Cobb R 

4 C. A. Eldridge G 

5 Ezra Wheeler O 

6 W. D. Mclndoe R 

VIRGINIA, 

1 L. H. Chandler C 



19 Saml. F. Miller R ip2 Joseph Segar C 



20 Ambrose W. Clark R 

21 Francis Kernan C 

22 De W. C. Littlejohn....if 

23 Thos. F. Davis R 

24 Theo. M. Pomeroy R 



3 B. M. Kitchen C 

WEST VIRGINIA. 

1 Wm. G. Brown S 

2 Jacob B. Blair R 

3 K. V. Whaley G 



832 



FIVE HUNDRED POLITICAL TEXTS. 



Radical 92 

Conservative 89 

Unconditional peace 5 

Total 186 

DELEGATES. 

NEW MEXICO. NEBRASKA. 

F. Pfrea Samuel G. Daily. 



UTAH. 

John F. Kenny. 

■WASHINGTON. 

George E. Cole. 



COLORADO. 
Hiram P. Bennett. 

IDAHO. 

William H. Walace 



The foregoing classification i3 not ours. It is in the 
main correct, bnt will bear sundry changes. It will tlo 
for refference. 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT, 



(BEGINNING OF THE END,) 



OR, 



THE RISE, PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF "ONE IDEA," 

INCLUDING THE PRINCIPAL ACT3 If THE LIFE OF AJJRAHAM THE FIRST. 



IN ELEVEN ACTS. 



PnOLOQUE. 

The laugh comes in here — things now 
Doth wear a weighty and a serious brow! 
Sad, foul and bloody — full of crime and woe — 
Such mournful scenes as cause the eye to flow, 
I'll anon present. Those with hearts, may here, 
If they fell that way inclined, let drop a tearl 
My subject will deserve it. Such as give 
Me money, out of hope that they may live 
To see the end of war and tradgedy'a alarm — 
Rejoice in Peace — fearing naught of harm; 
And read my "drama," how soon they'll see 
That might and folly hunt in pairs for misery 1 
And if you can bo "merry" then I fear, 
A son may dance upon his mother's bier! 



ACT I. 

Scene — In the Cfiicago Wigwam. 

lEnter Politicians, Cormorants and others. 

\st Pol. — Hoc consideraiioni tux est, my Lords, 
We this day convene for most holy purpose, 
To name a ruler that shall much improve 
On the sorry ill-haps of King James, the Fourth. 

Our choice must be an hermafrodite; 
Who hath a mealey mouth for utterance 
Of sweet things, concerning sable Knights 
Of yam, hoe cake and cruel cat-o'-nine-tails! 
The leader of our tribe must have no taint 
Of ill omen, or Fuss and Feathers 'tout him ! 
With all the points ol most honorable ignorance, 
He must be fit for any point of compass — 
And for treason, stratagem and spoils; 
One that in town and ranche conservative. 
May 'list the rabble, with no ill precedent 
To'pearin judgment 'gainst his sure success! 
And who, in districts radical, at once. 
May carry all before him, as the embodiment 
Of the most rabid, redundant dogmas ! 
We must the deepest current follow. 
For that doth the proper channel indicate, 
To the sea, where fishes do most school, 
And wheie our nets, if cast within aright, 
May, in fruition, become our_/I«ished hopes. 

We must our flaunting banners fitly garnish 
With emblems and mottoes the public nerves to tickle, 
Sach as Retrenchment, Freedom and Reform! 
These will careless eyes amuse, and then. 
The public ear to charm, send out our Ciceroes, 
To mount the rostrum, and this catch-vote trinity 
Expound, and condemn with horror's holy unction, 
The rascally counterparts that doth aflSict us, 
Under King James, the Fourth? 

Such, my Lords, 
la, in short, my plan, success to master; 
What say you to"t ! 

24 Pol.— For one, 

I'm most charmingly delighted, faith. 
With all the noble Lord hath uttered! 
My osly fault-finding in this doth lie: — 
That sundry details hath His Grace omitted 



Which alone can vouchsafe success ! 
'Tis known to all, the Western Little Giant 
Stands at this time, like a wall of fire 
Betwixt us and our goal of hope. 

A Voice— (Interruptingly)— We must dispatch him. 

2d Pol. — (Continuing) — Yea, that we must! 

But how? That's the most important question. 

[Scratchts his head, exclaiming: 
I have it, by Jupiter! — at last I have it. 
The Democratic Sachems are in quarrel! 
I would encourage their Charleston split 
By a lever and entering wedge, at Baltimore. 
The enemies of the famous Little Giant 
Are bent on revolt — yea, secession. 
And if we give but one grain of 'couragement 
They will secede, and thus so weaken 
The Democratic hosts, that we'll be sure 
To win— not by our strength, but their weakness! 
I've had a word with their great Benjamin, 
The Senatorial Jow from Molasses town. 
He hath a most ferocious speech agreed 
To utter in the forum of the "Pantheon," 
Which, in return, did I stipulate, 
To print and circulate two million copies, 
As seed for Northern fallow fields. 
Thus, may we use our foeman's steel 
To conquer, though dragons follow after. 

Office Seeker— Bravo! bravol! 

The plan will office and the spoils secure us — 
A most welcome dish to stomachs long in fast! 
For, outside the crib so long we've anxious stood, 
Like the fifth calf, our turn still waiting. 
That any means to reach the pap, I welcome! 
And mock all fear of consequences ! 

Compunction.— Be cautious, friends, I chide, 

There may in this tub lie concealed, a cat. 
Or acid, that may cramp us with the bellyache! 
Honesty may, e'en in poUtics be virtue; 
And as Harry Clay did on occasion utter, 
"I would rather be right than President!" 
Therefore, mock I these villainous propositions. 

Voices in the IKt. — Hustle him out! 

He's got a conscience, a quite conclusive fact, 
That he to our tribe belongeth not! 

Voices from the Rostrum. — Away with him! 

[£xii Comp. in a shower of histeS- 

Delegate. — Come, come my Lords, to business. 

With the platform, and campaign role I'm pleaa'd. 
But who shall be the Patriarch to lead 
Our forces thro' the ploomy valley 'fore ns? 

Our aching bones do need a goodly med'cine! 
We hate the south, and the south hate us! 
No shock of earth shall sunder our two hates! 
The question is, who'll so lead us o'er Charybdl*, 
That we may 'scape dark, yawning Scilla? 

As a fit beginning, will I name 
Abraham, the tall, and jocose Sucker Barrister; 
Who, though a lion in a Western bar-room. 
Will a juvenile sheep become— at court! 
So docile, as to mould like Burgundy wax, 
And as King Henry to Exeter remarked. 



334 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 



True, when the lion fawns upon the lamb, 
The lamb will never cease to fDilow him. 
Give me a flexible prince — mnles I "bomin,^te. 

iVeiu Yorker — Most noble Lords, 

If I am permitted here ray mouth to ope, 
I will suggest the n6bie Dulce ot York, 
Who hath too oft boeu shelvM by expediency. 

If we his claims now do overlook, 
We dry the fount from which the se^ of thought 
SuckB its everlasting fill. 

' Give us brains, 
And less expediency, in alopathic doses — 
A mind that greatness blends with actions — 
An intellect above rail or hair-splitting quacks— 
A something better than mere nose of wax. 
Above all others, 'tis my oft expressed belief 
That William, the Conquerer, is the man 
To lead our conquering hosts. 

Contractor. —I agree, in part, with the noble wight 
Who hath regaled our ears with brains and sense, 
And that bo urgently the Duke of York doth press. 
I, too like him, am a devotee of brains! 
But I confess, my faith is somewhat shattered 
In the insinuation that all the brains extant 
Are by the Duke of York monopolized. 

All admit that where graces challenge grace 
And brains oppress tke skulls that hold them. 
That our Simon hath no proud party peer! 
Brains and money are his strongest holt! 
These are graces, that when once combined 
Will sweep the board, and let us into clover! 
I therefore propose that Simon be 
Our candidate and nominee! 
J3e would lead us to the vast public larder. 
Where, we'd fill our pich'd and billious stomachs! 

iVew Torlitr.— {Aside.)— [Provided alw.ays, 
That Simon himself, had. /iwt been gorged!] 

[Laughter and hisses in thepit. 

Sir Puke.— Since thus your favorites are urg'd 
I offer Edward, the nable Barron von St. Louis; 
He will great Border strength conciliate. 
And our platform fringe would soil the least. 
I warn you, sUght not his stronger claims. 

Sucker.— Talk not of Edward's "claims!" 
Bear to the slaughter-house his mangled corse! 
Away with such bloody-bones pretenders; for, 
Honest Abraham shall, of our victorious tribe, 
Become the Patriarch, de jure. 

I move the previous question! 
Put out the lights — each one take care of self- 
Clear thepit, and let the vote be quickly taken! 
The motion's carried — now to honest ballot! 
One — twice— yea to twenty rounds, at least — 
All hail to honest Abe, our gallant chief! 

[Exitomnes, after a short "collection." 



ACT 11. 

Saiss.... After Ekciion...Springfdd Eermiiage. 

A MEDLEY: 

DBSCKIPTIVE... PATHETIC. ..POETIC. ..PROPHETIC ASD NATtJBAL. 

{Enter numerous Cormorants. 

1st Cor.... How now, my liege Lord, 

The returns do indicate thou art chosen King. 
Egad, I knew the Wide Awakes would save you ! 
'Twasmy influence that carried tilings in our parts! 
In fact, no one did e'er such forces muster! 
At great expense, did I sweat and work for thee, 
And of all the jokes thou hast e'er perpetrated. 
The joke of thy success doth the climax cap, 
And, as your Grace is mighty fond of jokes, 
'Tis safe to guess you this do extra relish! 
By the way, your Grace, how about the offices? 
lemy sight good for the Tumbuctoo Charge? 
I see you hesitate. I'll not o'erpress my suit 
Now, since I fear the news hath o'ercome you. 
What, your Grace, are you ill. ..displeased,... 
&i, what's the matter? I ne'er did see you 
Put on so solemn aiis, 'pon honor. ..never! 

Alraham... Nay, away, good bore, 

I'm neither ill nor sore displeased, withall. 
'Tis only a modest fear that I may meet 



With troubles worse than Liliput encountereJ! 
I'm no Jackson, as the world will see anon! 
Troubles are thick'ning in the southern zone. 
Like unto steaming mush o'er the peasant's fire! 
Our late allies who did assist to kill off "Dug," 
And thus to the Imperial Throne lift me, 
Hath at my success snufiTd great offence 
And now do threaten dissolution, which if it come, 
Will force me to sue for Democratic succor! 
For, our Wide Awakes, I fear, tho' good to burn 
Their midnight He, and to vocalize the streets 
With nocturnal music, harsh to ears polite. 
Will hardly prove efficient in the tug *f war! 

[Enter the Dauphin {Bob) with the latest newspaper.'] 

Dauphin. ..Good sire, from the post am I come, amain, 
To signify that the rebels' backs are up. 
Who, many loyal victims do put to sword ! 
Send succor quick, and stop the rage, betime, 
Before the wounds do grow incurable, 
For, being fresh, there is yet much hope of help. 

^!/rfi?iam...AsIfeared,thissparkwill prove aragingfire, 
If wind and fuel be bro't to feed and fan it! 
But, Dauphin, I'm neither King or Regent yet, 
And if I were, I might well question 
AVhether I could roll back the flaming tide, 
With more success than hath King James. 
Tho' rather than jeopard .all, as he hath. 
Would I have lost my life betimes, 
Than bring a burden of dishonor home. 
For as Julius Ca^ar, am I chivalric. 
But, like the ostrich, that in S.ahara's sands 
Doth hide its head, and thinks nobody sees 
Its form, because it sees nobody, 
I must, from vulgar eyes conceal my purpose! 
'Twill be time enough for secondary matters. 
When I've toss'd to friends the bones of office. 

2d Cor... Most noble Sucker, 

Thou dost wisdom almost divine betray! 
The loaves and fishes! Ah, most gracious Sire! 
Ttiem's of our edifice the corner-stone... 
The alpha and omega of our Chicago Platform! 
I do most freely applaud your Grace's views, 
And I trust your Grace will, in due time. 
Heed my claims for the mission to St. Cloud! 
Here's my papers, which my faith will prove. 
In the irrepressible conflict, I love. 

3d Cor... -4ye, yes, my friend hath fitly spoken; 

Thou art theherofor these dreadful times! 
I pray your Grace, my claims to also note. 
But little do /care, your Grace, for pelf and place. 
But then my friends do urge with grave concern 
That as 'Charge to Quito I'm most fit to serve. 
What says your Gr.ice? Can I count upon 
The gratification of my most urgent friends? 

Abraham... Most valued friends, 

Y'ou presume much and do squeeze my honor, . 
As old Mrs. Battles said when being hugged ■ 
By the ungallant bear, in wanton mood! 
I fain would to you all, serve pottage. 
Yea, as ye h.ave served myself, of late; ' 

But, yet, 'tis meet young eagles should not feed 
Outside the natal crib. 

Therefore, wait I pray. 
Until my advent to the Fed'r.al Mecca, 
And when ensconced within the palace kitchen, 
I may cogitate upon your several "claims," 
Until then, my tritiuds... adieu! 

[Exit Abraham and the Dauphin.] 

ith Cor... Well, my waiting friends, 

In the language of our old joker icc-gerent, 
I think this devlish cool! Yes, and I may add, 
The North Pole is a monster red-hot poker. 
Compared with this frigid, gruff "Adieu!" 
Why, his Grace dismissed us so curtly. 
That my recommendations lie congealed 
To the nether end of my untouch'd pocket I 
The great altitude his Grace hath reached. 
Reminds me of the monkey up the pole ! 
bth Cor... Ha! ha! So! so! 

Must we not take such as our betters give. 
And ask no questions? Our Honest Abraham, 
Will soon become tte Government. ..all-in-all, 
And who that lispeth aught 'gainst him 
Will against the Government inveigh.,. 
That will be treason. 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 



3B5 



Uh Cor... True. ..it may be true, 

But tlien what "comes of the great corner-stone 

Of our most Boleuin \\ta.uy ...freedom! 
"ith Cor... 0, ye worse than geeso, 

To be thus hissing out comphiints. 

Let's return and wait srentBl 

\^E^eunt Omnes, meeting at the door another swarm of 
Cormorants.] 



ACT III. 
SczSE...On the Road to Washington. 

[Enter (the cars) Abraham, Q. Margaret, the Dau- 
phin and Suit.] 
Abraham... (in a soliloquizing and musing mood). ..[Aside . 

[Ah, who'd have tho't some thirty j-ears ago, 

When on the turbid, roaring Wabash 

I did a sea-worthy Hat boat command. 

Or, when among the Ilousiers, mauling rails,... 

Or jokes in some country grocery cracking, 

That I, alone, of all this mighty people, 

Should thus have been found most worthy 

To rule as monarch . 

Verily, 

How little man doth know his mental powers. 

Until by circumstance they luminate! 
i'rom small beginnings to lofty heights 

Uave I ascended by the ladder Douglas made. 

Until I'm the observed of all observers! 

And my name upon all tongues is hing'd. 
I'm to that Mecca on my winding way. 

Where politicians most do congregate! 

With garlands hither my path is garnish'd. 

And at each station will I meet acclaims 

Of curiosity-seeking multitudes. 

Yet, 

Alas! I fear, that in the sequel of that path, 

There lies concealed, a bed of thorns. 

And, envenomed di-agon's teeth, by acres.] 

The air feels chilly. ..the ague threatens! 

Dauphin, pass the bottle! 

[Here the train arrives at I s Station... Mu'.ti- 

tudes Jlock around and clamor for a speech.] 
Abraham — My generous frieuds, 

I am rejoiced to see you, and should judge that you 

Are right smart glad to welcome me. 

[Loud huzzas and cries of ^'Tell us what lyou're 
going to (to. "J 

Abraham — Well, my friends, my mood is none too 
amiable. 
Yet, since you ask it, I've not the least objection 
To 'quaint you that to yonder Mecca do I haste, 
And what I there do, depends upon the fates, 
And what the good Duke of York may urge. 
The horizon with vast events o'erhangs, 
And womanish minds with fear are wrung, 
]'ut, as "nobody's Jiurt," I'll pass— adieu! 

[Tremeiidons cheering— as the train start$.] 

Scene 2d — Hotel at Harrishurg — Midnight.] 

[Enter Messenger in great hoite.] 

Mess... How, now sir Boniface, 

Is Father Abraham thy guest? I would see him. 
I am son of the Duks of York, and 
Have I business of the most pressing moment 
With His Highness, oiir beloved Abraham. 
I woald see him instanter. The occasion presses. 

Boniface... Abraham is now my honor'd guest; 

Some two hours post did he and suit retire, 

To woo Nature's sweet restorer, for 

He's journy'd long, and needs repose. 

He bad me to his slumbering presence 

Admit no mortal wight. 

Thou must disturb him not. 

For on his health depends the nation's life. 
Mess... I must, and will disturb him. 

For on his instant knowledge of my mission 

Depends his own most precious life! 

I ask an instant audience. ..yea, demand it, 

With His^Highnes6, for I possess a fearful secret. 

Sent dy the Duke of York, in lightning haste! 

On which may'st depend our weal or woe. 



Come, this instant, point out the way 
To Abraham's apartments, or by St. George, 
I'll grind your bones to fertilizing plaster. 
Betwixt yon ceiling and my sledge hammer fists. 
Boniface. ..(Aside)... [jjy hokeyt 

This fellow's either crazy, drunk or earnest. 
There's something in his eye that tokens resolntita* 
I'll to the chamber of my guest announce him. 
But should he prove to be a fiendish regicide, 
And should His Highness slay while he's my gaeat, 
I'm busted as a Boniface, foiever.] 
Well, stranger, since your demand doth seem 
So urgent, honest, and of so vast concern, 
I will at once comply; but mind you, sir. 
The least attempt at harm w ill 'rouse 
All slumbering Harrisburg, and'pon my word. 
The Susquehanna fishes shall sate their greed ' 
And dine upon your carcass. 
Come, sir, as I lead the way, follow thou. 
With steps as light as un wrought cotton. 
[Boniface and Messenger dtpartfor No. 1, btarim 
each a flambeau.] 

SCENB... They arrive at No. 1 , and give heavy rapt^ 

Abraham (within, half loaking.) What's up^my, 
spouse? 
Heard you not that racket? Strike a light ! 
The Dauphin out of bed hath fallen! 

[The visitors rap again.J 

The Dauphin hath his neck quite broken— and 

There goes the j—n. Fire! Thieves! 

[More and louder rapping.. 

Who'se at my chamber this late hour o' night? 

Speak without, or my Derringer I'll level ; 

And wo be to him that my nocturnal sanctum 

Doth invade at this unseasonable hour! 
Boniface. ..(without.) Fear not, your Highness, 

No enemy doth thee confront ! 'Tis thy friends !; 

I am pressed by no common necessity 

To thus arouse thee. 'Pon the sacred honor 

Of thy most honored, loyal guest, 

I do assure thee, it pains me sorely, 

To thus disturb thy soothing slumber: 

But a Messenger from the noble Duke of Yorfc 

Doth await your Highness' instant pleasure. 

He entreats thee, as thou life doth value, 

To grant him instant audience. 
Abraham... (soto voce,) [Some office seeker, 

I dare say, who plays this clever ruse 

To press his selfish suit. However, 

As there may be danger of some fell garrote, 

I'll grant him ingress, and probe the 'larum.] 

[ Unlocks the door^l 
Walk in, knight errants^ 
And be quiet, while I the gas do luminate. 

[Lighlt the ffor.J 
Mess... I beg your Highness' gracious pardon. 
For this most unseasonable interruption, but. 
My noble sire, and thy friend, the Duke of York, 
Having great concern for your Highness' Ufe, 
Hath me despatched to warn you of a plot, 
The most diabolical, and... 
Abraham. ..(interrupting.) What plot, pray? 

Mean you to say soma arch fiend is|plottln(j 
Harm against my person? Speak! 
Mess... Tea, that do I, your Highness. 

List, and ye shall learn the upshot on't. 

My noble Sire, who awaits your Highness, 
At the palace gate, hath, like a dashing rocket. 
Sent me to warn you of the fatal danger; 
That the vile Plugs of the Monumental City 
Hath a hatching for your swift destruction. 

A trusty friend, who had the secret gained. 
Did, on the wings of extra pressure steam, fly 
To 'quaint my father of the plot and plotters. 

By the information, the story runneth tbil8;_ 
To-morrow, as the Programme's gazetted, 
You are through seething Baltimore to pass. 
The Rebels hath their machinations well arrangec 
To give yourself and suit a fitting welcome, 
And as you the leading thoroughfare do pMS, 
The Plugs, in dissembling curiosity, 
Will iu vast array press upon you; 



836 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 



And, at the concerted signal from their chief, 

A row and tumult will commence, amain, 

And waxing hotter 'till it doth culminate 

Into a riot of fearful motive power! 

Bowie knives, rifles and revolving shooters, 

In that melee are all to play their purpose; 

And, when the seed of this infernal plot be ripe, 

A "chance shot". ..perhaps ado7.en... will pierce yon. ^ 

And yet, no one aimed it. ..'twas random "accident," 

And accidents, you know, are seldom honored 

By compunctions that at the death go weeping. 
Such, your Highness, is the full programme. 

And such your danger, most imminent. 

Here is a note from the Duke's own hand. 

With particulars full. Read, and at once fly 

Hence, by other routes, incng. 

[Abraham talcs letter and treraUingly read}.\ 
Abraham... But what, pray, can I do? 

This note doth post me of your father's fears, 

That on all the highways to the Palace 

There may assassins lie concealed. 
Has... For such contingency 

Have we made provision, ample! 

I have raised the Curtin from his couch, 

The noble ruler of this Commonwealth, 

Who hath arranged to cut the wires, 

go they give no tongue that's contraband; 

And thus announce, as a la Mahomed, 

Your flight by night to Mecca. 

The track is clear, and a special train 

Awaits your Highness at the depot. 

[Prestntt a large bundle to Abraham.] 

Tvke this Scotch cap and monkish cloak. 
And, when disguised therein, you've naught to fear, 
For, by my soul, you'll cut such grostesque figure, 
That e'en jour spouse won't know jou. 
Abraham... Alas, I feel the pressure 

Of your most kind regards. My inward fear 
Doth move me your lead to follow; 
But what of the morrow? What fresh excuse 
Can our friends invent, to reconcile the crowd, 
That will by thousands flock to see me? 
What will say the press, when in the wind 
Of such a dodge. ..so very ludicrous? 
Will they not po.stme as an arrant coward, 
When as brave as Ca;sar I should appear? 
I must summon counsel, e'er I start 
On such a steeple chase, incognito. 
Hail the Gov'uor and his trusty friends, 
That I may with him and them divide 
This vast responsibility. 

[Rings the bell. 

[Enter Boniface in great concern . ] 

Boniface... I am your most obsequious servant... 

What will'st your Highness? 
Abraham... I would you the Gov'nor .summon. 

I would confer with His Excellency, instantly. 
Boniface... Aye, your Highness! 

His Excellency is e'en now in waiting, just below. 

I will announce him at once. 

[Enter Governor and friends:] 
Abraham... Welcome to my perturbed chamber, 

Moat excellent Gov'nor. I did thee summon 

For counsel in this perplexing throe of fear! 

Hast thou learned the story? If yea, at once 

Proffer me advice, most just and honorable. 
Gov... That I will, your Highness. 

I know it all, and have contrived a mode 

Which, though it will provoke much criticism. 

Will save you, harmless as a suckling dove! 

By all means, depart at once, in this disguise... 

Tea, before your route with prying eyes 

Shall be astir. 

1 will explain 

Yonr absence on the morrow ; so now depart... 

Yea, go at once, for time is precious. 
Abraham... As you will; but 0, 

That I were a god, to shoot forth thunder 

Upon those Baltimorean, abject "Uglies!" 
Small things make base men proud. Those villains 

Being captains of a gang, threaten more 

Than Bargulus, the dread Illyrian Pirate! 

But they shall yet pay interest on their folly! 
Drones suck not eagles' blood, but rob bees! 



It seems, indeed, impos.nble that I should die 
By such dastard vassals as these Plug Uglies, 
Whose vice move rage, but not remorse, in me; 
I go, of message from the Duke of York, but 
I charge ye, take nie swiftly to the Palace! 

By vile Bezonians great men have died. 
It was a Rom I n sworder and bandito slave 
That great TuUy murdered. Brutus' bastard hand 
Stabbed Julius Caesar,... savage Islanders 
Pompey the Great, and Suffolk died by pirates... 
But Abraham the First shall never fall 
By Baltimore Plug assassins! 

go, don my guise 
And hence I post, a monkish refugee. 

[Exeuntomnes, in great haste and secrecy.] 



ACT IV. 
Sczye....4:th of March. 

[Abraham ehoseth his counsellors, consisting of the 
Duke of York, Simon, the Leper, Gideon, the Fogy, Ed- 
ward, the Barrister, Salmon, the Foxey, Caleb, of the 
family of Smiths, and Montgomery, the paragon. 

The time arrives for Abraham to doff the Scotch cap,&c., 
and put on the robes of power, and at 12 o'clock he, with 
his counsellors aud soothsayers, leads a dashing pageantry 
for the Capitol to do some "tall swearing." The East por- 
tico, surrounded by thousands bayonets and civilians.] 

[Enter King James, sundry Lords, Noblet, dc] 

Abraham. ..[Holding up his right hand and fixing his 
eyes on the nude Statuary before him.] 
I now before this vast array 
Of soldiers and civilians, am about to sweiir 
To protect and preserve the nation's Magna Char ta. 
Witne.ss, 0, people aud my God, that solemn oath. 

Judge Taney... Most elevated Abraham! 

Thou chosen ruler of the Jews and Gentiles 
Of this great, dissevered commonwealth! 
Know thou that I am the distinguished author 
Of that little-understood and misquoted tale, Dred 

Scott, 
And that by our great charter, am I empowered 
To exact of thee, before God, an oath, 
That thou, abjuring all other potentates. 
Powers, platforms, croeds and principalities. 
Will faithfully execute the statutes. 
Uphold the Constitution as I expound it, 
Aud place in trust or ofiice, none except 
The faithful of your creed and party. 
So help you, Simon and the "Balance.'" 

Ahrham... Most learn'd and ven'rable expounder 
Of the law's delays and constitutional perplexities, 
With profound delight have I heard thy speech. 
And in the presence of thy August Self, 
God and the people, do I offer solemn oath, 
To abjure all other Potentates and Powers, 
(Except Powers' Greek Slave and other Slaves,) 
And that I will most faithfully execute the laws, 
(And the rebels, if 1 can catch them,) . 
The Constitution in all things will I obey, 
(Providing with my wish it interferethnot,) 
And to office not a soul will I appoint, 
Except the purely "loyal" of my own party. 
So help me Simon and the "Balance." 

Gen. Scott {as Nestor) The deed is done, 

Abraham is now monarch of all he surveys ! 
Soldiers, break ranks, and to your rations... 
To your tents, 0, Israel! 

And thou. King James, 
Farewell. As Dupe of Lancaster, do I 'point thee, 
And may the evil of thy latter days 
By no means survive thy issue! 

King James... Thank God I 

I no loBger bear upon my galled back, 
The saddle of most perplexing oflice. 
And that politicians, spurred and booted. 
Shall no longer ride me legitimately. 
By the grace of God! 

Adieu, adieu. 
My late terror-stricken subjects. ..Adieu . 

[Exit King James, while Abraham seeks repose in 
the Palace,] 



t:ie irrepressible conflict. 



337 



ACT V. 
SOBlfE... Cabinet meeting — War and Jiumors if War. 

[Enter Abraham, Simon, Duke of i'orlc, a?id the 
Balance.] 
Abraham... Well, my faithful Dukes, 

To this solemn counsel I have you summoned. 

That I may draw your opinions 

Of our duty in this alarming crisis. 

The Seseshers have their ugly backs up, 

And are bent on early mischief ; 

The Palmetto state hath taken leave, 

And the Everglades are on the move; 

Georgia, Alabama and Texas threaten... 

The Mississippians are becoming hufl'y... 

The Old Dominion wavers, and I fear 

The whole caboodle will give us slip I 

What shall bo done, is now the question... 

What can be done, is still a harder one. 
Simon... I pray your Uighnesa 

Take little heed of these flying rumors. 

Rest at ease 'till the ofBces befill'dl 

OwT friends should be waited on 

Before we pay attention to our foes! 

Charity, your Highness, begins at home! 
Gideon... Simon hath most fitly spoken. 

'Tis clear that charity should at home begin: 

And what greater charity than to give the spoils 

To our most needy (yea, and seedy) friends, 

Whohath'swarined around your Highness, 

As a protecting armor, in your late peril, 

And at the polls were most servicable? 
Salmon... Fr.om such a role I must dissent; 

Our country first, and afterwards the spoils. 

Would be my motto at such time as this. 
Simon... "Country" de d — dl 

I've too many friends aivaitiug army contracts, 

To trifle "bout the "country," yet awhile! 

[Enter Mesaengtr .] 
Mess... Mo.st mighty sovereign, 

On our Eastern coast, the puissant rebels 

Have attack'd and battered down Fort Sumter, 

And they seem bent on more despr'ate mischief. 

'Tis said that Beauregard commands them ! 

I assure your most Excellent Highness, 

The very air is full of rumors. 

[Exit Messenger .] 
Abraham... Some light foot friend 

Post to old Nester Scott, instanter. 

Simon, thy self, or Catesby, where is he? 
Caleb... Catesby? He's among the rebel galleys! 
Simon... I prithee, be calm! 

'Twill be but an hour's bubble, then .all is quiet; 

To-morrow will I post a platoon of Wide Awaken, 

Who'll Charleston reduce to shreds. ..yea. 

In six hours, by the watch ! 

Egad! 

I'll make short work of these coward rebels! 
Gideon... I pray your Highness, leave all to Simon, 

He'll punish these recusant subjects! 

[En er '2d Messenger, in haste.} 
Abraham... How, now, dolt! 

What news? Why com'st thou in such haste? 
2d Mess... Why, my Lord! The rebels are in arms! 

Jeff. Davis is proclaimed vicegerent ruler 

Of one half ynur Highness' realms! 

Ha calls your Highness usurper, openly! 

He vsws to crown himself in Washington! 

His army is a vast, ragged multitude 

Of hinds and peasants, nude and merciless! 

Old Hickory's death and your success 

Hath given them heart and courage to proceed! 

All Republicans, Abolitionists and gentlemen 

They call false catterpillars, and intend their death! 
Abraham... 0, gracele.ss Rebels!... 

Fire-eating serfs... they know not what they do! 
.Nestor... My gracious Lord, 

Retire to Chicago, 'till I a f irce do raise 
To put them down. 
^luen Margaret... Ah, wre the Little Giant King, 

These fiendish Rebels would be soou a^ipeased! 

I Enter anot/'T Messenger.] 



'id Meu... Sad news, my Lonla! 

Stonewall's varlets hath near reached Long Bridge! 

The citizens fly and forsake their homes! 

The rascally people, thirsting after prey. 

Join with the traitors, and they jointly swear 

To spoil this city and your loyal court. 
Our legions that did yesternight go forth 

Into the Bull Run gorge to meet the Rebels, 

Hath been repulsed in most disastrous slaughter, 

and panic-struck, are flying hither; 

And your highness. 

Each soldiers wears a look of o'er-eihaustion; 

While curses long and loud do rend the air! 

All talk of treachery, and most atfirm 

That Patterson is a knave or fool ! 
Abraham... Merciful Heavens' 

Is it come to this? My very palace gates 

By a mob of ragged rebels threatened. 

Whom wo could boat by ballots, but not by swords! 

I'll go the oysteFB, there's treachery in camp! 
5imon...Then linger not, my Lord? Away! take horse! 
Abraham. ..Come, my Queen, Scott and our platform 

Will, in this trying hour, succor us. 
Q. Mar....Mj hope is gone, now Douglas is deceased. 
Abraham... Farewell, my Lords, 

Beware the Kentish rebels. To my palace 

Will I retire, and note events. 

[Exeunt omnes.] 



ACT VI. 

Scene — Cabinet Convention . 

Abraham... How now, my Lord.s, 

Have you pondered well the fearful " situation ?" 
The ill mishaps on Manassa.s' gory plains 
Have wrought my mind to most nervous pitch. 
What think you of a change in commander 
Of our grand Potomac Army ? 

There's Achilles, 
The chivalrous West Virginia hero. 
Who can from Stonewall bring those honors off. 
Which alone can rid us of Jeff Davis, 
The centrifugal Hector of the South! 

What say you to Achilles, the young Napoleon? 
Yet, in the trial, much opinion dwells — 
For now, our party taste our dear repute, 
With their finest palates. They trust to m<>. 
And yet, thei/ choose, and only ask my sanction- 
Using me as a manikin, merely. 

It is supposed. 
That he who goes forth to meet the Southern Hector, 
Issues from our own well studied choice. 
And should disaster follow, wo betide us. 

Simon... Give pardon to my speech ; 

Therefore, 'tis meet that Achilles meet not Hector! 
Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares, 
And think, perchance, they'll sell, if not 
The luster of the better shall exceed, 
By showing the baser lot at first ! 

Consent not that Achilles and Hector meet, 
For both our honor and our party interest 
Are dogg'd by two strange followers — 
I mean the radical and conservative pressin'e— 
Achilles is a chieftain of Democratic stock. 
He's valliant, and may win too many laurels! 
We must to our party interest have an eye! 

Abraham ...In thnt light, I don't exactly see it. 

Simon... What glory Achilles wins from Hector, 
Wore he of our party, we should all share. 
But success would make his party insolent, 
Anil we had better parch in Afric's sun, 
Than in the pride of Achilles' glory! 

No. let us make a lottery, 
And by device, let blockhead Ajax (h'aw 
The man to fight with Hector. Among ourselves, 
Give him allowance for the better man, 
For that will physic most, the proud Democracy, 
Who rail in loud applause, and make them fall 
Their crests, that prouder than blue iris bends! 

If the dull, brainless Ajax comes safe off, 
We'll dress him up in voices! Should he fail, 
Yet, go we under our good opinion still. 
That we have belti-.r men. But, hit or miss, 



338 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 



Oar plan one gooil shape of sense assumes-- 
Ajax employed, pltioks down Achilles' plumes! 
D. of Y.... My Lord Simo;i 

Hath woven a most ingenious web, which 
Might, and then it might not catch 
The silly summer flies that buzz around 
The purlieus of our royal palace. But I, 
Morefoxey, would web for guUinippers-- 
They do bite and stin^. 

No, we must not 
Our brave Achilles jump by any noodle; 
For should aught of ill betide our arms, 
'Twill be to p;uty scheming charged ! 

The public is a tiger, which, when by degrees. 
Tamed and docillated to one's own will. 
Can by silken .strings of sophistry be led : 
But when frosh from jungles of the native herd, 
'Tis no common plaything, and might, anon 
Prove dangerous. We must be cautious! 

[Enter Page.] 
Page... Please your Highness, 

I am press'd by a seeiy courtier, just arrived. 
With pale and livered face, and greasy wardrobe, 
To ask him audience with your Lordships. 
Shall I announce him? 
Abra}iam...Vf ho is he, and what his purpose? 
Page... Please your Highness, 

I know him not, and can but from his exterior jib 
Describe him . 
Simon... Well, well, what looks he like? 

Page... And, by the Powers that made me, 

1 should be puzzled to daguerreotype him. 
He's crowned with a slouched hat, a la Mcse-- 
Coat and jacket drab as pale charity- - 
Pants of the same fabric, closely pack'd 
Inside his monstrous stogas. 

Such, your Lordship, 
Are his quaint externals, which to other eyes, 
More vulgar, 'pear as though once were clean, 
Tho' now with grease and ink befuddled! 
The sheepish looking stranger did flat refuse 
To send his card, and I would you caution, 
Sean him well, leFt some cannibal spy 
Shall for supper take your measure. 
Ahrahani (aside.)... [Oreely, by thunder! 

There's no mistaking that quaint description. 
Wonder what the cuss desires of me? 
Perhaps some contract, or foreign mission. - 
Or, to bore me about the duties of my oath, 
Or, in the contraband role impress me! 
Well, a few sugar plums must quiet him. J 
Admit the stranger, I know him well. 
Page... Your Highness, 

I haste to do your bidding. 

[Aside.] 
[His Highness "knows him well," egad! 
He seems familiar with all the greasy fellers? 
However, I'll keep a vigil eye on the gold spoons 
And silver plate, while that rustic stays.] 

[Exunt Page, and enter Gen. Greely.] 
Abraham... Welcome to our palace, 

ThOH most proficient mental engineer! 
Wait, betimes, while I do call the lacquey. 
To spunge thy dusty wardrobe. 
Gen. Greely... 0, trouble not, sweet Abraham, 

About my wardrobe, for on Jnly 4th, 
One year ago, it was quite renovated. 
But, good Abraham, I'm come not, I'll swear, 
All the way trom York, to shake my dust 
Into your royal court. I am come, commission'd 
To plead before your august Lordships, 
The bleeding cause of contrabands, in general! 
I do demand, that ignoring all other acts. 
The Confiscation Act you follow, to the letter. 
Issue the Proclamation, and "on to Richmond!" 
Then, by St. Paul, the rebels soon must yield. 
For I have nine hundred thousand warriors 
That to arms will spring, the very moment 
Ysu sound the Proclamation trump. 
D. of T. (aside.)... [As I have oft prognosticated, 
That Greely will yet ruin the House of Abraham. 
I would he were ten leagues in Dixie.] 

AVell, my honest friend. 
It doth n:.e honor to thus greet thee! 



I pray thee be thou quite at home. 
But, with aught valuable, meddle not - 
Touch nothing here, and I'll give the "pass" 
To enjoy the liberty of the palace yard! 
Adieu, kind General --adieu! 

Gen. Greely (aside.)... [Umph! Since these snobs 
Are dressed in a little brief authority. 
They put on airs, that cast the Bowery Thugs 
Quite in the shade. Faith, I'll tickle 'em 
With my trusty goese quill. J 

[EtH Gen. Greely.] 

D. (f r. ... Thank God fur that good riddance! 
[Enter Page.] 

Page... May it please your gracious Highness 
A delegation in the anti-room doth wait 
An audience with your Highness. 

Abraham... Admit them not. 

These interruptions doth spoil our purpose. 
jSa/mon.-.Tell them we are not at home to-day. 
Page... But, my Lords, they did me press 

Most urgent, and tsesides, they are your allies. 

Most potent in this crisis. 
Gideon... Speak, rat. 

What their wish? Come, make short tongue! 

Page [ My Lord, I can but say, 

"They're black as ace o'spades. and only talk 
About "Freedom" and His Highness' "policy." 
Simon... Ah ! I smell the rat 

These are our party proteges. I vow, 
We must not these turn off in grief. 
All voices... Admit them! Admit them! 

[Enter Delegation of Contrabands.] 
Abraham... Welcome, welcome! 

Most sable allies in freedom's cause! 
D. of J'... Welcome, thou motive power 

Of the conilict, irrepressible. 
Gideon... "What can we do to serve thee? 
Ist Contraband... We hab come, Massa Abraham. 
In behaf ob degemmen ob de purest blood. 
To enquire 'bout de collyzashun question. 
Abraham... Aye, aye, ye do flatter me. 

To thus take notice o' that important point, 
Which is the Alpha and Omega of my reign . 

[Enter Messenger.] 
Simon. ..y^hj this interruption, bastard? 
Mess... Pardon, your Lordships, 

But Achilles; failing of ample reinforcements, 
By Ajax, as he would, hath, by vast numbers. 
Been quite repulsed, by Hector's Rebel Chiefs, 
And hence, to Yorktown is retreating. 

Achilles did chide me. 
As I lov'd our country, to fly with speed 
That should distance the fleetest stag, 
To reach the palace, and beg your Lordships 
The send him succor, instantly, or 
As he bad me say, all may be lost. 

[Enter Edioin, Simmi having withdrawn.] 
Edivin... Begone, ye lousey interloper. 

And tell Achilles to give o'er Richmond— 
That Ajax to guard our royal palace 
Hath been directed . Tell Achilles to flee 
Or fight, for no succor shall he have from me. 
Sahnon... A vaunt! A vaunt! 

We've more important business now ! 
Our colored cousins await our pleasure! 

[Exit Messenger in grief.] 

1st Con... As I war sayin', Massa-- 

Abraham... 0,--aye, I do remember. 

Thou wouldst learn my arch device 
To make you equals of the famed Aztecs. 
2d Con... ^"i Massa, do, 

Tou won't 'mong dem alligators send us! 
We am told you makedis war on our 'count-- 
Dat you promise to make us "free" and -'equal," 
Just as <le Declarashun 'spresses it. 
But, Massa, if you send us off from friends, 
Agin our wish and our free inclinashun.s. 
What 'comes of de "freedom" and de "quality?" 
We ax you to carry out de one great principle, 
Dat Ma'ssaGreely and Sumner 'splain so muchl 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 



33y 



Abraham... Ah, most illiterate ignoramuses! 

Thou dost ill-comprehend our party teachings. 

We bv no means assert you tree and equal 

As ourselves, among our uoble selves. 

Such admission would most preposterous be. 
2d Con. ..Well, Massa, den what you mean! 
Abraham. ..We mean that you are "free" to emigrate, 

And "equal" to my plan of gradual extradition. 

If I but give your brethren all free passes. 

And my subjects foot the bills, in "freedom's" name, 

That's what we mean. We all do know 

That you are much inferior to our nobl» race. 

And so long as we all remain together, 

The inferior must be slaves. 
Jst Con... Massa, dem's most 'culiar sent'ments. 

You can't dese chiles fool by any such a stuff. 
2d Ck)n...'We won't go to Quito or Liberia. 
Zd Co7i... No, dat wo won't. 

We'll wid de white folks he free and equal. 

Just as you say Massa Jefferson foretold us. 
ith Con... If de darkies all dis land do leab. 

What will the bobolishioners do for votes? 
5ih Con... Da can't do widout ns, 

And, Massa Abraham, we all see you d--d 

Afore we go wa to hunt up "freedom" ! 

Good da, Massa- -good da. 

[Eieurit Contrabands . I 
Abraham (to the Dul:e of Yorh)...! say, good Duke, 

This contraband question is a double knot, 

That more and more puzzles, as we make effort 

To untie it. I'd rather beat the jungle, 

And seize the hyena's snarling whelps, 

In presence of their exasperated dam, 

Than meddle with this contraband wolf. 
D. of T...1 see the troubles thicken, and irrcpressiblo 

Are becoming. 
Edwin... This was the fatal rock, 

On which my late master, (or, rather, dupe,) 

King James, did split. Ilis affliction 

Was of the Lecompton type. 
Gideon... We too late find it an ignus faluus, 

And our party its Frankenstien creator, 

Deliver us from the monster of our own creation. 
Caleb... And may wo 'scape Acteon's fate, 

Who by his own dogs was eaten uji . 
Montgomery... Long have I known 

It was a phantom, which, for our classic party 

'Twere death to hug, and no less fatal 

To disembrace . 

{Enter Page.] 
Page.... Please, your Highness, 

The Lord Chancellor of the new Exchequer, 

Doth urge your instant presence 'fore him. 

Monster frauds have been discovered! 

He fears that not less than five hundred millions 

Hath thro' sundry agents taken wings! — 

Parliament is all arage, and A'an Wyck 

Hath his portfolio filled with proofs ! - - 

The press is loud- -sedition stalks abroad? 

The people are becoming restive ! 
i'(iu)m...This sedition must be stopped. 
Abraham... 'Rwi how.' 
Edwin... Leave that to mo. 

If your Highness will sign a proclamation 

Against "disloyal practices," egad, I'll warrant 

To gag these malcontent editors, who 

Because our favorites may appropriate 

A few paltry millions, da stir up sedition! 

A few examplcd victims in Ft. Lafiiyette 

Will affright the rest to silence. 
Abraham... I will do anything your Loidship nrgea, 

Tho' Proclamations are not my best holt ! 
Caleb... Come, let's adjcurn. 

And con the matter o'er betimes. 

[Exeunt omnes.] 



ACT VII. 

ScESE — The Irrepressible Conflict— Slorm in the Cabinet. 

Salmon... Good morrow, your Highness, 

May I hope your health's par excellent? 
You seldom 'pear in more rosy plight. 

Abraham... Alas, your Lordship, 

Appearances do oft, e'en the elect, deceive. 
My physical, perhaps, wern't never better. 
But in spirit am I most sorely troubled: 
Yet, for that, good Lord, no matter ! 
I would enquire the state of oiir Exchequer. 
The Wall St. barometer bodes storms, 1 fear! 
The tempest swiftly comes. We must take in sail, 
For by a private telegram it is announced 
That our Legal Tenders wont stand the metal test, 
And 'tis feared our plethoric batch of Green Back.? 
May sink to that old Continental standard, 
When a solid cord of picture cm-rency 
Would hardly purchase one good brandy sling, 
Such as I, for a levy, did once to Suckers sell ! 
Now, what can be done to save our credit? 

Salmon... Good Father Abraham 

I pray you on that score rest quite at ease. 
For my ample "system" will ere long restore 
The equilibrium 'twixt mint drops and our rags. 
But thafs neither here nor there- -it's small concern, 
Compared with that other matter pressing. 

ylfrra/iam...What "other matter" mean your Lordship? 

Salmon... Why, 'tis that peerless one, 

Your coiinsellors have so often urged, 
(Save Montgomery, Caleb and the Duke of York.) 
I mean the Froclamatirm . It will at one fell swoop. 
Crush the rebels and liberate the contrabands. 
'Tis cheaper warfare than maintaining armies. 

Abraham... No, no, I'll die, 

E'er I'll so f juI offense commit-- 
I cannot--will not listen to't-- 
So long as my spinal nerve holds out. 
'Twould let loose a thousand vilest passions, 
That breed in savage breasts, and loathing maggots 
would prey upon the fceted, decomposing stench, 
Until a servile rising should in butchery end, 
when our jealous neighbors across the sea, 
Would seize the first occasion, as it ripened, 
And add to rebel strength their own vast power! 
And in such event, 'tis clear, we'd lose our throne, 
And our contraband rabit i' the barg.ain. 
We'd be like the greedy sow, seeing the moon's disc 
Reflected in the well, her corn did drop. 
To seize upon the new-made cheese, 
And by her greed lost all her supper. 

[Entrr ReligioJis Delegation from Chicago. \ 

1st Divine., We are come, your Highness, 

To present from our great Western Synod, 
A petition, urgent- -that you will, at once 
The Proclamation issue, and thus to Freedom 
Lend the bent of your almighty power! 
Say, shall we despond, or hope? 

Abraham... If thou'lt convince m© 

That Ethiopes arc of more due concernment • 
Than thirty millions of the Anglo Saxon race, 
And that all our treasure, time and blood. 
Should on black "extractions" be exhausted. 
Then might I listen to your importunities. 
But what cauIdo--of what avail 
Would bo my proclamation, in those parts 
Where I have not the power to send an agent 
To collect a shekel of our revenue? 
Such a proclamation would do no more good. 
Than tho "Pope's Bull against the Comet !" 
Or Crocket's swear against the earthquake. 

[Exeunt Delegation, in a huff. ] 

D. of r.... Bravo! Bravo! 

Edwin. ..1 echo bravo, (in a horn.) 

Salmon, (aside, to the balance.). ..[^■ly Lords, go steady 
We must these foibles humor, yet awhile, until 
We can, by strategy, more pressure bring! 

His Highness and the Duke of York doth fear 
Too much the puissant Democracy, 
And the conservatives of our own household. 
But never mind--I'vemost cheering n 



340 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 



Of events, wbicli, when ripe, will bring 

His Highness down, as Scott did cooney.] 
Gideon, (aside, in reply .)... Ah, indeed, my Lord, 

And to what new role do you refer, I pray, 

That e'en in hope looks cheering?] 
Salmon (aside- -responsive.)... [I will explain; -- 

Ton must know that our most faithful friends, 

The Royal Gov'nors of all New England, 

Hare convened at Providence, of late — 

A plan of moral coercion to devise; and 

By secret correspondence, am T advised. 

That they, with sundry others, at Altoona, 

Soon will meet, for more decisive action: 

Then, we'll have their ultimatum--no rnor« troops! 

Unless the proclamation be forthcoming. 

Thus you see, Uis Highness must anccumb.] 
Pardon, youp highness, 

My tete a tete with Gideon. 'Tis only 

A private affair of honor! 
Abraham... With all my heart, my Lord; 

I observed you not. No inconvenience. 

\_Asid».\ 

[But I've heard enough to settle me 

In the firm conviction that foul treachery 

Doth in my very court go stalking! 

I must probe this matter, and if 'tis thus, 

I must yield per force of mad circumstance, 

For I'll not abdicate--'twere too much 

To yield up power — 8alary--glory--all- . 

Barely to show the mettle of my vertebra^ 

No, no; 

I'll make the most on't, and before the vile traitors 

Meet, will I the Proclamation issue, 

Tho' it blow the realm to atoms.] 

But come, my Lords, the clock's advancing; 

'Tis time to sup. Full bellies stimulate good nature. 

Page, draw the curtain. 
D. of J'.. .And we the corks will draw. 

[Ereunt on!7!«s.] 



ACT VIII. 

Sene — Altoona in the foreground. 

[Enter twelve Royal Govei-nors.] 
Ca,rdinal Andrev}...y\'e\comb to our conclave, noble 
Dakes! 

This convocation is most opportune, indeed, 

Since tho main purpose c)n't is gained! 

P^ead you not the Proclamation, just o'er the wires? 

Egad! His Highness hath been bro't to milk! 

Tho' I confess, he's fired 'twist wind and water! 

The Proclamation is as much a vain abortion, 

As the choice we made of ruler at the polls! 

However, we must seem to applaud it. 

Or else the radical votes we lose. 
jyuke of Hampshire... Thou hast spoken wisely. 

Most gracious Cardinal, We must the potion swallow, 

And f«in convalescance, the' the fell disease 

In time becomes incurable! 
Barron de Accident. ..Ich weis uicht was sie sagen wol- 
len 

Hoffe es aber bald auszufinden. 

Buckeye Pasha.... Away with all other questions, 
And let us serve the notice on His Highness, 
That unless Achilles be deposed, at once. 
And Ajax raised to favor, no more troops 
Shall e'er go forth by our commands. 
What say you all? 

Bishop Curtin... To consent 

To displacement of the brave Achilles, 
Since he hath my Commonwealth defended. 
With so much strategy and good omen. 
Would most foul ingratitude betray. 
And, besides, I know, the reb<sl Hector 
Would glory in the change, since all else 
Our Chieftains, Hector feareth not 
More than the sportive winds. 
Sucker... Well, since of his removal 

The valiant Bishop doth not agree 
With the greatest number of us all. 
Let us take our satchels and haste to meet 
His Highness at the Central Palace, 



That we may His Highness congratulate 
On the great wisdom of his Proclamation, 
And then we may such other measures urge 
That will dismiss Achillas, and Ajax favor. 
Come, the cars are waiting — All aboard. 

[Eexeunt twelve Royal Governors.} 

ACT IX. 

Scene. — In the Green Room. 

[Enter Abraham, Councillors and Politicians, Nov.} 

Edwin... Well, youi Highneaa, 

How think you the elections are decided? I fear 

From the blue complexion of the October fashions. 

That we may suffer still greater losses. 

I e'en do fear New York deserting. 
Salmon... Poh! Impossible! 

Sdwin...! Sey-mour than perhaps you think I do, 

And I begin to distrust, most seriously, 

The policy of our lettres de catchet. That, I fear, 

Hath played the d 1 with our purpose. 

The people, instead of being cowed, as 'twas intended, 

Have been stung to madnes.s. Look out, 

I warn ye, for November gales! 
Caleb... If we are beaten, then the jig iaup, 

And ye must the Dictatorship abandon. 

Until the people, in more meilow mood, 

Shall off thf^ir guard be napping. 
Abraham... Thy prognostications, ray Lords, 

Remind me of a story, about the jackass 

And the kid, which I'll relate — 
£ltfujin... (interrupting.) 0, d m tho stories. 

I'm sick of stories, and besides, here comes the Page 

With a telegram. Now look out for thunder! 

[Enter Page.] 
Edwin. ..Koyv, now- -any news from York? 
Page... Aye, yes, my Lord, sad news, indeed. 

Seymour, the " tory,' andallhis confederates, 

Art chosen by most fearful odds. 

And Wadsworth, alas, is hors du combat! 
Salmon... Great Moses! Can this be so! 

Then I have lost the oysters ! 
D. of I'... I knew it aforetime, and thus my wager 
sav'd ; 

Your radical measures hath overturn'd our porridge. 

As I have oft predicted. 
Gideon. ..Well, Page, what news from other quarters? 
Page... Ah, your Lordships, most doleful. 

The Badger State hath topsy-turvy turned, 

And the Suckers — right at the very door sill 

Of His Higness' hermitage, have " played h — 11," 

AVhile the Wolverines, no more grateful. 

Have nearly kicked the beam! 
Abraham... Alas, a fit response 

To the bitter cup of my Proclamation. 

0, foul conspirators! 'JThou hast ruined Rome, 

Thou hast Caisar stabbed. Et tu Edwin ! 

Et tu Salmon! 0, Tempore! 0, Mores! 

Briug me no more news to night! 

[Exeunt omnes.] 



ACT X. 

ScEHE-- Cuiireet Meeting. 

Abraham... Alas, my Lords, 

What an unkind hour is this to me! 
For scarcely from delirious slumber did I wake. 
On this bright, yet ill-boding morn, 
E'er a courier, drunk with dread affright, 
Did call me from my couch, to pour 
Into my unwilling ears, results, astounding, 
Of the Proclamation in Kentucky, where, 
Aahis story runs, the exasperated masses 
Do join the rebels by scores and grand divisions ! 
The Border States are said to be in uproar! 
The Contrabands don't "rise" as first you urg'd ! 
But such as have no power or will to work. 
Are pressing on our lines in such vast numbers. 
That loyal men do stagger 'neath the weight 
That's eating out their substance. I four, 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 



341 



My Lordg, thnt wc-'ve too wei! s-acceeded 
In uniting the heretofore diTcrse feuds 
That cooled and teinjiered Southern rage, 
And that the loyal North we have divided! 

While I did the middle courfe conserve, 
While I did Ajax o'erthrow, and did "modify'' 
Simon, and hrave Hunter, and while I did 
Our Simon from my counsel hanish, 
All things went merry as a marriage bell! 
The North was then a unit of power! 
She did freely bleed her many millions; 
And from her hill sides, plains and valleys, 
Came forth her sturdy and brave lesions — 
Mighty and terrible as the hosts of Xerxes! 

In the West — my own proud West — 
The car of our triumphs was moving on ! 
Into our hands fall Ilenry and Donelson, 
By the valor of troops that never quailed — 
The prestige of my victorious army was felt 
At Shiloh, Pea Kidge and Island Ten, 
While Memphis and Mississippi's Queen, 
Pell easy preys to my chivalrous legions! 

And, no less mark'dwere achievements 
On our Eastern coast, where to attack. 
Was victory, and victory us deserted not. 
Until Parliament and Cabinet essayed 
To lead, and dictate plans beyond their ken. 
Or power to execute. Politicians took the field — 
Not in person — for they were chivalric bastards! 

Instead of trusting to our war chieftains, - 
They chalk'd campaigns jn the caucus room. 
And did them execute in the civil forum! 
Heroes they made of cornstalks, alas! 
To be riven by the first ill-omened blast! 
Military science they whistled down the wind. 
And mock'dat "spades" and "strategy!" 
They've press'd me night and day — ' 'on to Richmond, ' ' 
By measures, routes, and geometric curves. 
Of which they, themselves, as the unborn babe, 
Were ignorant. Cause, they seldom study, 
But jump at theories, to reach effect! 

When our prosperity was at its highest flow. 
Did they howl like packs of arrant wolves! 
To stop enlistments, and to the Proclamation 
Leave the job of crushing treason. 

Well, 
To please the malcontents, I the Bull did issue. 
Behold what followed! — the forthwith call 
For six hundred thousand victims, new hecatombs 
To fill, and mines to blowup more treasure! 
And behold disaster on disaster, since, 
Without a parallel, excuse, or palliation: 
And all to please the whim of party hncksters! 

Thrice hath our Grand Army — Potomac's pride! 
Been repulsed and flayed by Hector's ragged serfs. 
And now I find me in that dread dilemma 
Where, to "modify" my new role — under pressure 

chosen, 
Would my reputation forever compromise. 
And I be styled fool — dastard — nose of wax! 
And yet, to pereerve, on the chart ill drafted. 
Would destroy my country, and dethrone my power. 
So much for Buckingham! [Aside. i 

[0, fell disasters! — ripe fruits of giving o'er 
To clamors of a rabble mob, insatiate. 
0, Heaven's vengeance, swift as lightning's bolt, 
Kesign my Cabinet — make room for Holt!] 

[Faints, and subsides into an easy chair.] 

D. of T. — See, Hii Highness swoons ! 

His griefs do overcome him. Call the Page, 

And summon quick the Knight of Physic. 
Fdwin. — Ho! there, without! Help! 

[Enter Citizen.] 
at. ..Pray, my Lord, what's the matterj 
Edwin. ..0, nothing, save His Highness hath a fit; 

That's what's the matter. 
Abraham (recovering). ..CeAse for me, your pother, 

For, in body am I quite well, indeed! 

'Tismy country's cause that hath o'ercome 

My agitated spirit. ..and tliou the cause! 
Edwin (agitatid) — Me the cause ! 
Abraham... FoM...aye, and the whole pack of Eadicala, 

Who hath forc'd me to this unlucky blunder. 

[Enter Messenger.] 



Mess... Your most worshipfn' FTigbness, 

I am come, by order of your chitftii; , .mbrose, 
To 'quaint you of reverses diabolic^;. 
That jour Grand Army bath just befel. 
At Fredericksburg, on the fatal Rapp.ahannock; 
Tour faithful legions are badly cut to pieces. 
And Ambrose hath across the stream retired. 
Shorn of warriors, near fifteen thousand! 
As brave as e'er did charge a bayonet! 

Abraham. ..\yha.t needs Ambrose. ..succor? 

Mss... Nay, your Highness; 

He did chide me, that of troops aud ammunition 
He had abundance, but, less rash orders 
Would better suit his, and the nation's purpose! 

Edivin... That Ambrose is an arrant fool, 

To thus cast suspicion on my orders! 
I bad him take Fredericksburg at any cost. 
And then "on to Richmond," by the shortest cut, 
As pre-arranged in our party caucus; 
And if he's failed, the blame be on his skirts! 

Abraham... Enough, enough! 

My heart doth within me freeze to zero. 
And more than ever am I now convinc'd 
That party caucus can ne'er take Richmond! 
The Proclamation have I uttered. ..fatal blunder! 
And deposed Achilles... thrice fatal error! 

Alaa ! I feel like one 
Whom the vile intrigues of petty politicians 
Have so incensed, that I am reckless 
What I do to spite ill-fortune. 

Alas, alas! 
I am so weary ot these sad disasters 
That on any chance would I set my life 
To mend it, or to be rid on't. 

So cowards fight when they can fly no longer... 
So doves do peck the falcon's piercing talons... 
So desp'rate soldiers, hopeless of their lives. 
Breathe out invectives 'gainst the officers! 
Dreadful is the fate whom despair hath forced 
To censure Fate. ..and pious hope forego! 

All hope is lost. ..welcome any fate! 
Save hope deferred, to be destroyed. 
My court's dismissed, and to my sad pillow 
Will I pour out my ;5-1ent grief. 

[E.ceunlomnes.] 

ACT XI. 

Sct'sc. .Senatorial Caucus in the Capitol. 

[Enter thirty-one Senators.\ 
Fessenden... Most noble Senators, 

We are to this solemn purpose call'd 

To take action on the late disaster! 

Unless something shall be quickly done, 

To rescue our army, from oblivion, 

The feast of fatal blunders, we might 

As well all at once resign. 
Wade... But what can we do? 

Will the noble Sen'tor some "Maine" end state 

That we can by this caucus 'complish? 
Ees... We must revolutionize 

The Cabinet. Abraham, we cannot stir. 

But we must demand a change at once. 

Among his effete counsellors. 

At least, the Duke of York 

Must walk the plank! So should Edward, 

In fact, the more the better, for then, 

We all do stand a better chance! 
3VM7n... That's what's the matter. 
Fes..^ I do affirm the Duke of York 

ToTO the cau.se of our sad reverses. 

He is the Jonah of the Cabinet, and then. 

He doth denounce the proclamation 

As an idle bagatelle. 
Sumner... He must go out, or else no peace 

Will Abraham enjoy, Mark that. 

I move that we His Highness do address 

A firm, yet most decisive protest 

Against the further party toleration 

Of the imbecile clogs around him. 

The motion's carried, and five of our number 

Shall bear to Abraham our potent wishes. 

Our purpose done, 1 declare this caucus 

Dissolved till further orders. 

[Exeunt omnes.] 



342 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 



&CSi<l2o— Cabinet Meeting. 

[Enter Committee of five Utenafors.] 

Abraham... Good morrow, yeur honors; 

Wliat's now agog in Parliament? 

Fes... We are come, yonr Highness, 

As select men from last evening's caucus. 
To favor your Highness with this Protest. 

[Hands out a paper, which Abraham reads.] 

Abraham... And is this your role? 

My Court will understand the purpose: 
Those doughty Senators do of me demand 
A modification of my Cabinet, faith; 
And the Duke of York, most faithful, 
At least shall go . What say my Court ? 

D. of T... I eay, your Highness, 

Here's my portfolio. ..take it hack: 
I can't be useful unless I'm wholly black. 

/SaZmon... And here's my portfolio, full of checks; 
Take it, and I'll run my chance for Senator. 

ilontgomer)/... And, yonr Highness, 

I, too am ready for the slaughter. 

Edwin... I'll gee 'emd...d e'er I 

Will yield an Inch. I'd rather die. 

Abraham... Take back your folios, all; 

We're all upon ill fortune's track, 
And together we will sink or swim. 
Go back, ye intermeddling solons, 
Do your worst, but unless you're the stronger, 
I'll stand this "pressure" a little longer. 

[Exeunt Committee, exasperated.] 

Edwin... A pretty bold attempt, your Highness 

For little boys to Wade beyond their depths, 



Without bladders 'neath then- arms. 

[Enter nalleck.] 

Edwin... Here comes the fatal cause 

Of all our most malicious ills. 

Halleck... Such epithets address you sir, to me? 

I'll not brook such contemptuous slurs. 
Sir, you are a coward, and never fought for sptirs. 
Edwin... ile a coward. ..then you're a lying whelp, 

And dare not resent, without procuring help. 
i/aW«ct... (Slaps his face.) Take that, paltroon, my 
legal tender. 
And show how bravo you pl.ay your own defender. 
[Tliey clinch and have a savage set-to.] 
Abraham... My rabid Lords, 

It grieves me sore to see this cruel sport. 
Strewing blood and hair about my virtuous court. 

v. of T... Most vicious mastiffs, 

I pray you both, preserve your strength; 
You'll need it all on ropes, at length. 

Chandler... Let them fight. 

I admire the pluck they're now begetting; 
It so pleasethme to see blood-letting. 
See the claret; good Lord, how Stanton reels, 
And Halleck chucks him out. ..head, neck and heels. 
[Exeunt, aciors, drama and all.] 



Sad is the moral. ..brother shouldn't war with brother, 
Nor in the Cabinet sho'dthey maul each other. 
May God in future forbid such exhibitions. 
And rid the country of such vile politicians, 
Lest they our rights and liberties destroy, 
Is the ardent prayer of the Carrier Boy. 



INDEX. 



A. 

Arhitrary Ar rests... \ieec\ic\: ou 236 

G."W. Jones Ts. W. II. Seward. 237 

inion of Jurlge Gierke 237 

Case of Gov. Tod and others 238 

" Liberated from the Bastile" 239 

N. Y. Independent, on 253 

Boston Advertiser, ou 254 

Mr. Seward on ringing the bell IIC 

See Republican Confessions 229 

Ixtracts ficm Milvvaidiee Sentinel, on 230-31 

Washington Hunt, on 236 

Case of Gen, Stone 236 

Arbitrary Po?i'S)-...Doolittle vs. Doolittle 261 

Gen. Banks on Military Usurpations 2*53-4 

See Declaration of Independence, revised 274 

Madison and Lincoln contrasted 35 

Blackstoue on, in England 248 

Gen. Banks on 190 

Ed. Livingston's Speech on Alien Bill 223 

Cause and Efl'ect of--Bank8on 191 

Lincoln's Claim of--Order 33 192 

Vall&ndigham's case 199-217 

Judge Duer on 221 

Atrocious Sentiments. ..Sen. Wi'.son on Shooting Cop- 
perheads 240 

.46oWionis<s... Selling Negroes for Cotton 263 

On Vallandigham Case "219 

Anti-Slavery Standard on 219 

N. Y. Post and Tribune on 219 

For Dissolution- -Various Extracts on 54-63 

Reference to their A'otes in Congress 90 

Where are They? --Pets of the Administration.. 106 

Republicans Mould PublicOpinion for 122 

Army, <?ie...Adj't Gen. Thomas--Pahtical use of. '265 

AndPolitics--Case of Lt. Edgerly 267 

Weakened to carry Elections 278 

Army ro<in5'...BoirowedfromCa!3ar and Napoleon ... 276 

To make a French Despot 276 

Dr. Lieberou 277 

Tuttle and Vallandigham 277 

Interference in Kentucky Elections 280 

Army Tramportation. . .\ a.n Wyck on 318 

Army of the Potomac. ..Too near Washington.- 293 

Army ^rcc.Numberof men ca,lled for 304 

Anti-Copperhead Resolutio^u...Mo'viihQ Soldiers view- 
ed them 265 

Abolition iJespofism... Schemes to Control Elections... 276 

Abolition Conspirocy... In New York, 102-3 

In 1798 29 

Abolition Roorbacks. ..To force Elections 287 

Abolition irar...Gov. Stone Admits 161 

Abolition... Ihe Object of Negro Soldier Policy 170 

Jefferson on (Mo. question) 45-47 

Object of the War— Sundry Extracts 59 

Reference to Votes on, in Congress 90 

Abolitionists and Secessionists. ..IdenticaX •- Blair's 

Speech 176-183 

Abolitionists and Rejiublicans... AW the Same 183 

Amalgamation. ..Fred. Douglas on, &c 119 

.4nines<y...Piesident's Proclamation- -N. Y. Round Ta- 
ble on 304 

u4rms... Frauds in purchase of 312 

Andrew, G'oi'....IIis " Roads Swarm "--Letter 157 

What followed in Massachusetts Legislature... 157 

Administration, the...N. Y. Times denounces 159 

Other Republican papers Denounce 160 

Radical Press " Disloyal" to, 164-168 

N. Y. Times on "heavy load "of. 166 

Under Influence of Traitors 166 

Phillips on the Rampage 172 

C. B.Smith pledges Policy of 174 



Atlantic Month!;/ Articli...See Blair's Speech 176 

Adams, John. ..In favor of a Monarchy 223 

On Arbitrary power 328 

Alien Zaio... Livingston's Speech on 223 

Agitation. ..Of the Slavery Question. ..in Rome 9 

In France 12 to 14 

Effects of in French West Indies 13 to 14 

Effects of in British West Indies 15 to 18 

By Federals in 1815 29 

Sam. J. 'Xildenon, Slavery 45 

Jackson, Clay and Harrison ou 48 

Sen. Wilson on 92 

Objects of in Congress. ..Thayer on 123 

Aid and Comfort — to the enemy. ..Blue Lights 34 

American Flaf/... Grei^lvy's "Flaunting Lie" 59 

Ashley, J. J/.. .On Emancipation 91 

Addison, H. J/.. .Disunion or Abolition 92 

Autocratic Po!i'i'r...Ingersoll fur 94 

American Anti-Slavery <Soctc<y... Treason of. 101 

Anti-Slavery. ..yVeniiQU Phillips' "basin" 105 

Altoona Meeting. ..Jioatoa Courier on 115 

Midnight Session of 116 

.ilrfa?rt5, J. §... Offers Petition for Dissolution 26 

On the Link ot Union 330 

American ^ta/es7?ie?!... Warnings of. 327 

B. 

Brown, John. ..Wii "solution" 185 

Ilis Harper Ferry Raid... Various Extracts, 
showing Republican endorsement of.. .Sermon 
of De Loss Love. ..Fort Atkinson Standard... 
La Cross Republican. ..Sermon of Rev. Mr. 
M'heelock... Milwaukee Sentinel. ..Elkhorn In- 
dependent. ..Telegrams. ..Wins ted Herald. ..J. 
W. ; Phillips. ..Elder Spooner...Natick Res- 
olution. ..Rockford Meeting. ..Firing Guns in 
Albany. ..Tfaeo. Parker's Postula... Milwaukee 
Republicans. ..Rev. S. W. Bassett... More tel- 
egrams. ..Wendell Philliiis... Milwaukee Free 
Democrat. ..Wisconsin State Journal. ..Rev. 
Mr. Staples. ..Milwaukee Sentinel... R. W. 
Emerson. ..Rev. M. P. Kinney. ..Wenasha ' 
Conservator. ..Milwaukee Atlas. ..New York 
Tribune. ..Wood County Reporter... W. L. "' 
Yancey... Wisconsin Churches. ..New York 
Herald. ..J. W. Forney. ..Kansas Herald on 

Character of Brown 64 to 72 

Seward and Hale toasted by Louisville Journal 64 

Booth Cajf... Chronological history of. 74 to 77 

Blue Lights. ..llomtsAhy Federals 34 . ^^ 

Blue Lights and Blue Laws... 'Ea.Tly VuTitAns 108 * 

Bingham, J. //....Radical views of. 90 

Beeoher, II. IFarrf... Constitution the "cause" of the 

War 93 

Emancipation object of the war, 99, 100 

On God and the Negro 118 

Bpclares the President the Government 121 

TO the "Government" 144 

On Vallandigham's case 219 

On Arbitrary Arrests 253 

Glories in interference With elections 290 

Blair, P. M. GeweraZ... Speech at Rockville 176 

Speaks of Democrats on "gibbets" 267 

Brougham, Lord. ..On coercion 144 

Burnside, General. .-Older 38. ..Spies 192 

Approves of arrests for wearing badges 238 

Declares martial law in Kentucky 280 

Bastile. ..\ict\ms liberated from 239 

Blood-T/iirsty Threats. ..Sen. Wilson in Maine 240 

Against copperheads 286-7 

Brinsmade, J/«...Her arrest and remarks oa 229-234 

Bill o/i2!V//t<s.. .Massachusetts and Virginia 244 



344 



INDEX. 



282 
287 
287 



BlacksUme, Sir Wm...On habeas corpus 248 

Sad ^cttons—Springfroui good beginnings 268 

Bradfvrd, 6'or... Proclamation against military or- 
ders 

i7rt6er2/...Money to carry elections 

Athenians bribed by I'hilip of Macedon 

Brough, JbAra... Bullet vs. Ballot 288 

Bertram, CoL. .Threats to hang Democrats 289 

Breckinridge. Leaders. ..lu fat offices 291 

iurte... Maxim for "loyal" sneaks 297 

BanisMng i^tmaies...Vick8burt,' discipline 305 

Brokerage, Contract...\»ii Wycks speech alL 

Banks, JV. 7^.."Lot the Uniouslide" 94 

Predicts military government in 1856 122 

Burlingame... for new Bilde, for new God, &c 94 

Bellows, Rev. i>r...For subjugation and extermina- 
tion 

Balance of i'oiw)-. ..Administratiou under ban of 105 

Bigotry anci/H^oio-racc. .Borrowed from the Pilgrims IttS 

Bayonets... To defy the People. ..Chicago Tribune 113 

Book .5>wui("e...By Kefoim Congress 317 

c. 



Channing, Bcv. i)r...Proph6ies on Emancipation...... 18 

Cuba aMrfVamaica... compared 20 

Cause of the H'ar... Is slavery the 23 

Cause and eft'ect illustrated 23 

Beecher on the 23 

\Vh.it is the 26 

Ehett, Toombs, &c...its date 24 

Constitution, i/ic.The three parties in forming 24 

Early opposition to 25 

A covenant with death, &c 88 

Greeley on suspending 92 

Thad. Stevens pronouuces an absurdity 116 

Burnt by Garrison 118 

Henkle "blows itaway" 118 

Original plan of 126 

Mr. Martin on, &c 127-8 

Virginia arid I<iew Jersey plan of. 130 

Dr. Bellows cares notfor 94 

As Beecher's Sheep skin parchment 100 

The right to suspend claimed 101 

Hale's bill t9 abolish 171 

Violation of.. .Cowan's speech 182 

Doolittle on violating 261 

Violations of.. .see declaration revised 274 

Corruptions. .. John i?. Hale on 314 

Cameron, ,Smo?i... Eulogy on Volunteering 294 

Letter to McKinstry 321 

Conscription... Cost of the 294 

Republican testimony on 294-5 

Wlckliffe's Amendment to Bill 207 

New York Frauds in 2S4 

See Draft 291-296 

Gmnech'cut... Democracy of. 300 

Columbus, O/iio... Democracy of 303 

a»np;niien<s... By Stanton to Gov. Seymour 303 

Cost of the Ifttr... Statistical 304 

Clay, J/enry. ..Hia Prophesy fulfilled 307 

On South Carolina Compromise 131-2 

On Abolitionists 327 

On Missouri Compromise 131 

Clay, <'. .*f....OpposedtoUnionasit Wag 119 

Cummings' Agency ...%2,mQ,mO 310 

Cattle a>nirac«...Charter of theCataline 310-11 

Ccm<rac(5... Horses- -See Van Wyck's Speech 312 

Brokerage of, same 312 

CtorreJPowdence... Between Democrats and Mi. Lin- 

coin 199-217 

Resolutions and Address from Albany 199 

Mr. Lincoln's Reply ^ 200 

The Rejoinder .^ 204 

From Ohio Democracy- -same 209 

President's Reply 212 

The Rejoinder 214 

Between Conway and Mason 96, 97 

CritUnden, J. J.. ..On Freedom of Spe°ch 219 

Crittenden Compromise... Object of the War 219 

Congress on 154 

Complete History of. 134-139 

Douglas and Pugh on 49 

Vote in Senate on 95 

Congress. ..^iim\ieis of the 38th 331 

How carried by radicals 268 

Reform- -Mileage steal 319 

Censures--see Resolution 322 



Civil Power and Courts. ..JwA'^n Duer on 221 

Criticisrii...Qoy. Hunt, on "Government" 236 

Clerke, Judge. ..Opinion in Jones vs. Seward 237 

Constable, Judge. ..Arresti^iX on the Bench 239 

" Copperheads" ...^en. Wilson on Shooting 240 

Abolition Threats-- Halleck 266 

'■'Copperhead" Breast Pins... Arreeis for wearing... 273 
Convention... In Kentucky --Broken up by Col. Gilbert 240 

Oivil Bights. ..in England. ..Blackstone, ©■n 248 

Civil Tfur.. Brougb'B threat of 288 

Rev. 0. Duvall prays for 84 

Consistency... of AbolitiuiiiKm...Yote on the Negro in 

Wisconsin and Illinois 262 

Cotton Speculations ...Selling Negroes for Cotton 203 

Chase, S. P... Abolition, object of the War 267 

Union not worth fighting for 151 

An old Abolitionist 151 

On State Rights 120 

Petition for Dissolution 91 

Cow/irojfiise... Chicago Tribune opposed to 95 

Edward Everett on 143 

See Peace Congress 144, 145 

General remarks on 145 

See Crittenden resolution 154 

Various efforts at. ..difiBculties of. 125 

Of the Constitution 125 

Yates and Lansing withdraw from Convention 

...Original pl.in of. 125, 126 

Between Slavery and Navigation 128, 129 

Of 1850. ..tb» six points of 133 

Efforts at in 1861. ..Remarks, &c 133 

Wisconisn Legislature on 140-143 

Missouri Compromise, &c., &c 131 

Douglas on. ..Peace Congress 49 

Chicago Tribune. ..Pugh. ..Chandler 60 

A. G. Riddle against 90 

General remarks on 145 

Coni7)arisore...America and French Reign of Terror... 268 

Contractors.. .1)0 their part in elections 280 

Gen. Wilcox on 320 

Conway, M. 2>...ToRebel,Ma6on 95, 96 

Rather Defeat than Union, &c 119 

Conway, F.. 4. ..Treasonable Speech in Congress 96, 97 

Letter to N. Y. Tribune 98, 99 

Would not vote another dollar 91 

Conway, Ji'cr... Higher standard than Starsand Stripes 89 

1 CiDispm'cy... Abolition in New York 102-3 

The "Round Head" 112 

The Fremont... Boston Courier 114 

I Soldier voting scheme ,. 115 

Gov. Ramsey and Chicago Tribune on 115 

The Altoona meeting 114 

Northern, against the Union 29 

The Pelham, inl798 29 

Of New England, in 1814, &c 32 

The great Northern. ..Douglas on 53 

Sumner admits eacouragement of 64 

Of WisconiinSRepublicans 73 to 85 

Co«.s/>in(^or«... Against President, &c 115 

Coercto)!... Lord Brougham on 144 

Congress, Peace. ..Plan of Adjustment 144 

Franklin's substitute 145 

N. Y. Post on tie, in 145 

Greeley Against 145 

Chicago PZayw-??i...APlankfrom--LincoIn 153-175 

Conservative Poitcy...Pledgedby C. B. Smith 17« 

Co«/!Sc^tton... Senator Cowan on 182 

Doolittle on 186 

Cotvan, Senator. ..See Confiscation 182 

Colonization, &c... Senator Doolittle on 184 

Calhomi's (Solution. ..Doolittle on 185 

Caicse and P^ec^.. Efforts to Divide the North 191 

Conquest... Vhillips' Barbarian 105 

CoJicessjons... Greeley Opposes Ill 

Chandler, Z... On Compromise 60 

Cause. ..Of Agitation- -Slavery the .*. 90 

Cutler, W. P.. .On the "Cause" ^90 

Currency, the iVeto... Stand from under 325 



D. 

DtMoZirfion... Radicals and Rebels agree 291 

Republicans Clamor for 117 

Sen. Wadereadyfor oe 120 

Seward's justification of. 122 

No Terrors for J. P. Hale 123 

Ropublicans Stimulate 146 

Morrill Tariff to Aid 146 



INDEX. 



345 



Dissolution. ..Swmn'jT opens the Ba!I, ISCO 153 

N. y. Post and Wii. Journal on 158 

Wis. Jourual — " No misfortune " SI 

N . y Tribune advocates s 86 

Mr. Lincoln adrocates, in 1S48 87 

A'allaDdigham's Union Kesolutions voted down S7-S 
Hale, Chase and Seward rote on Petitions for.... 91 

Boston Liberator on Petitions for 92 

Lowell Republicans for 92 

Boston Free Soilers for 92 

Erie Free American on 92 

If . H. Gazette on Petitions for 92 

R. 8. Spaulding for 92 

Abolition Petitions for 92 

Rev. Mr. Hodges for 94 

Garrison on Growth of. 93 

Banks "Let the Union Slide " 94 

Oberlin Reicuers '. 103-4 

Phillips labors Nineteen Years for 105 

Greeley for letting Cotton States go Ill 

, Phillips Appeal for Ill 

J. Q. Adams --Petition for 26 

Giddings... petition for 26 

Factions of both sections desire 26 

Know Nothingism to assist 26 

Josiah Quincy proposes inlSll 28 

Hartford convention... New England Conspiracy 28 

Gov. Strong on "board of war" 28 

Spurned by Democrats in 1814 29 

Paving way for. ..Public debt, &c 45 

Object of forming Republican party 45 

S. J. Tilden on Agitation, for 45 

Jefferson's prediction, of 46-7 

F. P. Blair's testimony 54 

Parson Browulow on 54 

Thurlovv Weed and Mr. Seward 54 

Aboliticnists in New York in 1859, for 55 

Republicans of Massachusetts in 1851 and 1856 

for 55 

Ben Wade and Garrison 55 

Republicans of Wisconsin 65 

Burlingame...Wilmot...H. Mann 65 

Phillips... Lowel Republicans 55 

Bosten Liberator. ..J. W. Webb 55 

Hampshire Gazette. ..Anli-Slavery society 66 

Redmond. ..P. Pillsbury... Stephen Foster. ..Chas. 

Sumner 56-7 

Of Northern growth. ..Boston Liberator. ..War 
brought on by North. ..Testimony of Wen- 
dell Phillips. ..'The Kansas imbroglio, part of 

the scheme, &c 61 

Draft, ttc... vs. volunteering 291 

In Massachusetts and Rhode Island.. .A myste- 
rious. ..Springfield Republican on 295 

Results of in Massachusetts and New York... 

Thurlow Weed on sneaks 296 

In time of the Revolution 296 

Kept up for political purposes 296 

See conscription bill 267 

Democrats. ..Loyalty and patriotism of 297 

Of New York. ..Iowa. ..Ohio. ..Wisconsin. ..Ken- 
tucky. ...Minnesota.. .Pennsylvania Connecti- 
cut. ..Indiana. ..of Columbus, Ohio. ..of Madison, 
Wis...The National Democracy. ..Gov. Seymour's 
Proclamation. ..His message of 1863. ..Gov. Per- 
kin's proclamation. ..H. L. Palmer's views. ..«i 
tu Yallandigham... Democrats rejoice at victo- 
ries. ..testimony of their opponents. ..Mr. Sew- 
ard and Judge Paine on. ..Stanton compliments 

Seymour 298-303 

Threatened and punished for voting 286..7 

Hated by Republicans. ..Richmond Examiner 

and Mobile Register on 290..1 

Of 1814 protest against disunion 28 

Of New Jersey, spurn thj treason 29 

Democratic Vote.. .In the loyal States 305 

i)e/au((^r... caught 320 

Debt. ..The public. ..cost of the war. ..is a public, • na- 
tional blessing 304 

Our National, Ac 324 

XHsgraceful Outrage. ..At Boscobel 306 

Discipline. ..At Vicksburg 306 

Despotism... Seeks semblance of legality. ..Solicitor 

Whiting misconstrues law 234 

Have we not a military 263 

Adjutant Thomas punishing soldiers 265 

Avowed by Boston Commonwealth 268 

A leaf from French History 268 

SeofQoT. Seymour," 1864, on 269 

23 



i)fty>o/('jm...?igie of approaching 274 

Army voting to aid 276... 

Case of Lieut. Kdi;erly, 267 

Capt. Sells punished forvoting 286 

Webster on grasp <]f power 121 

Seward can ring a bell and arrest 118 

Confidence parent of.. .Jefferson. ..Webster on 

Free Speech...., 37 

Of Conscription. ..Sen. Harrison 329 

Datofs... Speech on Frauds 314 

On Larcenies 320 

Despotism Refined... A young lady fined for playing 

liano...Burnside arrests for wearing badges... 238 
Wilson on shooting Copperhead's. ..Col. Gilbert 
breaks up Kentucky Convention. ..Janesville 

Gazette on unlimited power 240 

Despotic Onler... Gen. RoUin to Alexandria Gazette... 236 

Despotism, pett!/...ATTeEtB for wealing badges 27S 

Diabolical Sentiment.'!. ..HMeck to New Y^ork meeting 266 

P. M. General Blair at same 267 

Senator Wilson utters 268 

Doolittle, S??i...v8. Doolittlc.on absolute power 261 

Speech on Colonization 184 

Charges U. S. Senate with want of sympathy... 186 

Racine Journal on 188 

On nullification and habeas corpus 85 

District of Columbia. ..tiiVitSiry Governor. ..investiga- 
tion suppressed 262 

Disloyal Republicans. ..Lift ot, $500 reward 242 

Ditloi/alty... Ta.h\es turned on charge of—Disloyalty of 
Radicals-— Andrew Johnson on-— Mr. Lin- 
coln 148, 149 

Opposition to the "government " 158-162 

Of Radicals- -Various Extracts 164-168 

Testimony of Sen. Browning, &c 165 

Revolutionary Spirit of Republicans 86 

And Treason--Variou8 Extracts 90-04 

Of Federals and Whigs 37-45 

Round Head Conspiracy 112 

Hailing Extermination and Damnation 117 

Sumner's Revolutionary Spirit 116 

Declaration of Independetice- -Reviied 274 

Douglas, S. J....T0 S. S. Hayes, J. Taylor and Mem- 
phis Appeal 138 

On Cause of the War 24 

On Compromise 49 

On Northern Conspiracy 53 

Disunionits... The other class 154 

Duer, Jurf^c... On Martial Law 221 

Discouraging Enlistme7its... Boston Liberator 90 

Davis, Wm. 3/.. ..Radical views 90 

Douglas, iy-ed...ToT Dissolution 93 

Douvall, Rev. Wm. 0... Hopes for Civil War 94 

E 

Emancipation... 'ESects of, in St. Domingo 13,14 

Napoleon's Proclamation of. IS 

Agitation for, in England--Sudden--Paley'f 

Opinion 14 

Canning on 14 

Effects of, in West Indies- -In Ilayti 15 

Statistical effects compared- -Barbarism, re- 
sults of- -Mr. Underbill's Testimony 16 

London, Missionary Herald on. ..Unfavorable to 
Jamaica. ..Comparisons before and after... 

Plantations abandoned 17 

Abolition prophesies 30 years ago. ..London 

Times on. ..Trollop on, &c 18 

Capt. Hamilton's statement. ..Editor New York 
Post on. ..Mr. Baird's opinion. ..Ei-Gevernor 
Wood's Experience. ..Kingston, a God-forsaken 
place... American Missionary on. ..American 
'Anti-Slavery Society on... Effect on marriage 

relation 19 

Loss of labor. ..Decay of estates. ..Only to free 
negroes from labor. ..Mr. LincoU's testimony 
...Mr. Underbill in Cuba. ..Cuba and Jamaica 
statistically compared^.. statistical comparison 

in the United States 20 

And peonage in Mexico 21 

Proclamation. ..New York Tribune on 155 

Pope's bull against the comet. ..New York Tri- 
bune, Janesville Gazette, Waukesha Freeman, 

Boston Liberator, on....^ 156 

Beward pronounces nnconstitutional „ 168 

Lincoln's "greatest folly" -, 168 

gpringfield-Utica letter, on 168 

Wilberforce and English TiewB on 171 



346 



INDflX. 



JJwaneipo^i'on... Springfield Republican confesses a 

failure 173 

tledg^s of Caleb B. Smith.... 174 

Mr. Mailigonon..... 174 

Lord Dunmore in Revolution. .....!.....„. 174 

- Thurlow Weed's prediction. ..GraduW... Lincoln 

' on. ..Chicago piriform.... 175 

Senator Doolittle on...;...\.... 184 

Lincoln vs. Lincoln 262 

Beecher on God responsible for :... 99 

Mr. Seward in 1858 „... 122 

Beecher, God and the negro ...V 118 

J. M. Ashley oii ....: 91 

Gov. Dennisonon.silddea .:.'. 23 

Meetions... MWitary interference in Kentucky. 281 

Interference trith in Maryland ' 282 

Frauds in PeiinsTlvauia and 'Ohio..l 285-6 

Capt. Sells punished '.....' 286 

Case of Lieut. Edgerly '. 267 

Bribery. ..use of money in..... 287 

Discharge of disabled Demorrat.s : 2S7 

New York Independent boaSta of Administrii- 

tion interference in.'.. 290 

Boston Commonwealth on ............' 268 

Anti -copperhead" resolutiohs, '&c '... 265 

Electionetriny ...HxpeuHcs saddlefl on th'e people... 278 

Frauds, thieafn, &c...:..L: .....' :..'..'. 279 

Contractors do their part........................... 280 

Burnside's martial law in Kentucky.-. 280 

ErAisiments.. .'WWiion and t'essendenon stopping 292 

Thad. Stevens' on ruinous expenses 293 

See also ....'. 191 

.ExenipJr... See draft in Massachusetts, &c 295 

Eifierson, li. TF... Radical extract..' .....' 92 

ExUrmination and X'rtOTnailtcn:.. Wisconsin Kepubii- 

cans on ;..... 117 

Executive power. ..Vi-AtiieX 'Webster oh......... 121 

Everett, £diti«r!Z... On compromise .' 143 

JJxtremes... Political, compared... ., 183 

Excuses. .."Qy Administration organs for usurpations, 

&c.. :... :. 1...1 .............229-234 

Edgerly, X!>Mf...Dismissedfor voting democratic'.. ...... 267 

jEyaaZi'fy.. .Bet ween races... McKenzie 22 

F. 

i?VaMdJ...Klectioiieoring expenses saddled on the peo- 
ple 278 

On the elective frauchise 279-80 

In New York quota 284 

In i'enusj-lvania arid Ohio election :285-6 

Chapter ou... poetical applications 307 

Van Wyck's speech on..... 310-11 

In Treasury department, &c 312 

Geo. D. Morgan's operations 313 

Jehn P. Hale on corruptions 314 

Dawes' spech on 314 

Record of infimy...Ohio Journal 316 

■ Stealing by Members of Congress. i. Senator Sim- 
mons $50,000... Honest JAck Hale. ..Middle 
men in Washington... Horse swindle. ..In Na- 
vy Yard. ..The book swindle, &c 317 

In transports. ..Grimes committee. ..Vessel char- 
ters. ..Conclusions ...'.. ......,....'... 318 

Mileage steal. ..New York frauds. '. 819 

Swindle at Cairo. ..Defaulter caught. ..Gen. Wil- 
cox on ' Contractors. ..Larcenies ... Frempnt'i 
frauds. ..Beauties of Republican retrench- 
ment ....; 320 

Millions upon millions wasted..... ....'. 320 

McKinstry's developments.... ^.."321 

Old Abe, Cameron, and their pets' 321 

One of the coolest. ..Congress censures 322 

Holy ministers and stolen libraries. ..Swindling 
soldiers... Hundreds of millions swindled. ..Im- 
peachment of Republican otticers for 323 

J!remonf...See frauds...... 320 

The conspiriicy...'BostbnCouiier 114 

Proclamation. ..ludiatia'poKs Sentinel on. 150 

Ftstui...VtM\ and the Roman Law... 253 

Fixe iS>«c7t...RepuMicans mob Douglas 257 

Green Co. (Wis.)mob : 257 

Abolished...SeuatorHOweon...' 273 

Jefferson and Webster on..... 37 

Ftderalt. Whigs and Repuhlicans...l\i. jUxtapoiition 258 

French History ...K\«9.rm:m 268 

F(yrney,J<jhn W...On XTnion Leagues..... 288 

Laws and safeguards, on .,......; 101 

Proclamation test of loyalty.,';,„',...'....VV.......i... 163 



False Reports. ..1o effect elections..., ,., 287 

Fessenden, Senator. ..Oa stopping enlist^ment^ 292 

Also same , ,....,] 191 

Free iVVr^coes... Won't work in Africa i IS 

Character of.. .Sir IH. Lighton...Capt. IJamilton 
on. ..Mr. Bigelow'g views. ..Mr. Baird's opin- 
ion. .,Ex-Gpv., Wood's exp.erience.,.Sewell on 
Kingston. ..American Millenary Society on 
...American Anti-Slavery Sooie,l;y on Licen- 
tiousness of.. .Marriage relations among, &c... 19 

Federals. ..¥'JT dissolution in 1798 30 

Caricature of tlje South by. ...Odious compari- 
sons. ..Sectional prejudice^ aroused by ...list of 

leading .,.,...,,..,,,.....31-35 

For the government when in power. ..Federal 
Gazette, 1798. ..New 'York Federalfi,' 1799... 
Sermon by Rev. Dr. Parish, 1790... Damn tjhe 
Government .in ISli... Rev. Dr. Parish in 

1814 ;.,.,... 37 

Vaiious extracts from -,.... 39 

Fugitive Xaw... Sumner on nuUifyipg ...,,. ..57-58 

Personal liberty bills^ Ac.....,....,,..'.. 188-9 

Flaunting iie... Greeley on the/lag 5S 

Freedom o/ ,Si)cec/i... Daniel Webster on.. .> 21S 

Crittenden on ,,.....,., ,,..,,.., 219 

Erey, Ja/nes is... Order on ^aUeas cofpus.,,,,,...,, 2:34 

' ' ' ^ '(J. ■ .^ .: .^ 

Government. ..Hamilton's strong'..... >...•......,.....;.. :..... 24 

Is the President the?. .;.,....„... .J .,... 100 

Beecher on : ..■......>; 121 

This. ..Mason's prediction of fate of. 130 

Giddings, Joshua. ..Vetitioa for dissolution 26 

Choked down in Chicago convention. ..EeasOng 
why 1 ;;.,... 152 

Gerrit /S'»ji£/i...For revolution in Kansas 63 

Garrison, ito3/rf...Constitution pro-slavery......' 78 

Disunion and Republicanism grow together 93 

No Union as it was 99 

Nest egg of treason., 100 

Burns the constitution , IIS 

Opinion of use of Republicans ..i.., 122 

Greeley, Horace. ..(New Y'ork 7'ri6tt««.)... Advocates 

secession and peace ,.j 86-7 

Superstition of the constitutien.- 93 

"Better that the Capitol should blaze,'' Ac 93 

Defiance to government .- 120 

Opposes compromise , 145 

Advocates secession 145 

Abuse of Administration 164 

On Ilalleck and cabbages ,......, ....; 167 

On servile insurrection 173 

On Vallandigham 220 

On infaliability of government ..;... 274 

On "Flaunting Lie" 68 

Gilbert, Col. ..On Kentucky convention..-. 240 

Grimes committee. ..GroBS frauds : 31S 

H. , 

History... Logic and application of 1... 9 

Of slavery agitation in itome, &c. ,.. 9 

A leaf from French. '. 268 

77a2/h'... History of Emancipation in ,... 15 

Hamilton, ^(?ox... Strong government..... 24 

Hartford convention. ..J^evr England, Confederacy... 

Dehiocratic protest. ,....„,:....,... 2? 

A waif from ..i 35 

Prom address to ..,.; '.... 41 

And Wisconsin Republicans Compared 85 

And conspiracies of '62 compared 113 

JTc/pey's... Impending crisis. ..Extracts from 62 

Seward endorses , 63 

Zra6cajco>7;«s.. .For negroes'.. .Milwaukee Sentinel.'.... 79 

Senator Doolittle on.' : , , S5 

Act suspending, &c ; ..,.,„.l(J9'-l6 

Vote on sanie 110 

Solicitor Whiting's "opinion" 2-34 

Magna Charts. ..Romtnisces 242-248 

Suspension... General remarks on , 245-6 

Blackstone on, in England 248 

What our fathers thought of it. 248 

Judge Geo. T. Curtis on 249 

Proclamation iuspendiug 254 

Vote in Congress. ..Magna charta 255 

Supreme Court of Wisconsin on 256 

Hutchings, v^oAn... On the "cause '.„■.,. ,...., 91 



INDEX. 



347 



Hale, John P...On Petitions for dissolution 61 

On (lissohition, "let it come" 123 

Honest Jacks. ..takes a "fee" 316 

Hopkins, £ras<us...\yill"in:ike bullets eflfective" 92 

Hodges, Bev. E...¥oT dissolution 93 

Sowe, Sen. T. 0... "Do in the mime of God," &c 105 

On free speech 273 

SaIZeci-...And cabbages. ..Greeley on 107 

On "sneaking traitors" 266 

Hunt, Waslnnr/tnn... On arbitrary arrests 2.'j6 

Horse contracts. ..\mi Wyck's speech 312 

Horse, SnnndU...A. sample 317 

Henry, jPuinc/.-... On liberty of the press 328 

I. 

Impending crisis. ..Ilelper's C2 

Ingersoll, E. C.For autocratic power 94 

7n?o?€rerece... Superstition and, of radicals 107 

Indemnity, Act o/... Sedition law No. 2 109 

Tote on politically classified 110 

Independent, N. 1'... On conspiracy vs. Lincoln 112 

/m6«ct7t7y...Of the "government". ..Radical proof.. ..164-8 

insurrection. Servile... tiow York Tribune on 173 

Illegal Arrests. ..See Yallandigham's case.. 199-217 

Mrs. Brinsmade and Mahouy case 229-234 

Indictment of Administration. ..See Declaration Re- 
vised 274 

Interference... By Administration in Kentucky Elect- 
ion ;. 280 

In Maryland election 282 

Also see 290 

/oioa. ..Democracy of. Patriotic 298 

Illinois... Betnocca.cy of, resolutions, &c 299 

Jndtana... Democracy of, resolutions, &c 300 

Investigatio7is...See record of infamy 316 

7«/aniy...See investigations 316 

Irrepressible co«/?ici...Shakesperean.. .Tragical 333 

J. 

Jamaica. ..Results of Emancipation in 17 

Public debt of incrsasing 18 

Condition of free negroes, in 18 

"Has become a desert ' 19 

Jefferson, T/ios... On free speech and despotism 37 

Ott the Mi-ssouri question 45-47 

Solution of the negro question 185 

His solemn warnings 327 

On plea of "necessity" 328 

Jackson, Andrew. ..FarewcW Address 327-8 

Hie spiritof compromise 131 

Julian, G. IF.. .On conquered provinces 91 

Jacobin c?!/6s... See Round Head conspiracy 114 

Johnsoji, Andrew. ..On abolition treason 149 

Jones, G. W...ye. W. H. Seward. ..Judge Gierke 237 

Juxtaposition. ..Ve(leT!i\s, Whigs and Republicans 258 

K. 

Knvw-Nothingism...1ts object 26 

Cleveland Herald, Chicago Tribune, Illinoii Re- 
publicans on. ..Federal Know Nothingism... 
Gen Scott's views. ..Albany Advertiser. ..Col. 

AVebb... Mayor Clark, on 27 

Kansas Imbroglio. ..I'Avt of the Dissolution Scheme... 

Gerrit Smith, Reeder and Beecher on 63 

Kidnapping. ..in New York. ..by Abolitionists 235 

Kentucky... Conxention broken up 240 

Eurnside's Martial law 280 

War Eagle on voting "Union" ticket 280 

Democracy of.. .their loyalty 288 

L. 

£o!/a7(.v.. -Radical Editors. ..too good to fight 262 

Weed toasts Tilton and Opdyke 296 

and Patriotism of Democrats. ..Remarks on 297 

of Democracy of New Y'ork...of Iowa. ..of Ken- 
tucky. ..of Ohio 298 

of Democracy of Wisconsin. ..of Minnesota. ..of 

Pennsylvania. ..of Illinois and Connecticut 299 

of Federals, when inpmver 37 

See Boston Commonwealth and Liberator 118 

of Vallandigham compared with Republicans... 241 

List of Disloyal Republican.^ 242 

Judge Curtis on .° 249 

Mr. Chase's opinion on 252 



Lincoln, President ...Concerning negroes , 20 

Opposes Mexican War , 43 

On Right of Seces.sion , 87 

His nest egg of treason 101 

His Abolition affinities 106 

"A firstrate fecond rate mair' ijl 

New York Independed scores 112 

No Government without consent 122 

His Inaugural. ..no right to interfere V^ith 

Slavery 149 

Message en same subject 150 

Whj' nominated. ..G. W. Dawson on 151 

His letter accepting nomination, in juxtaposi- 
tion with resolution of Chicago Convention... 153 
Emancipation Proclamation. ..his greatest folly 168 

Springfield -Utica letter 168 

On sudden emancipation 175 

His defense. ..New York World on 222 

Proclamation snspendiiig writ 254 

Lincoln vs. Lincoln 262 

His modification of Schenck , 283 

Proclamation of Amnesty... New York paper on 304 

Letter to Major McKinstry i 321 

His Bull against the Comet 156 

Liberty, P(rsonal...l''a.nl and Agrippa '. 253 

Magna Charta, <ic 244 

Leagues, C'niot!... Machinery of 288 

Secret, of New England 32 

Lieber, Dr. ..on Soldiers voting 288 

Zaio... "Positive Defiance" of 84 

Violations of.. .of the case 287 

Law of Susjiected Persons. ..Yrom Allison's History 246 

Loyal State {...DemocTntic vote in 305 

iarcc?ii>«... Dawes on Republican 320 

Laman, Marshal. ..Lincoln'^ Right Bower 321 

Liberty of the iVess... Patrick Henry on 328 

James Madison on 328 

Xi'tertj/... overthrow of. 88, 89 

Lovejoy, Oiwtt... Radical views 90 

Legal and Personal Rights. ..ViehsteT on 218 

Livingston, i't/uiarrf... Great speech on Alien Bill, 

1798 223 

Who was he? 229 

M. 

Montesquieu. ..on Free Speech 330 

J/exrco... Emancipation and Peonage in -21 

ilexican irar...A. Lincoln and C. B. Smith oppose 43 

J. R. Giddings. .. Warren (0.) Chronicle. ..Xenia 
(0.) Torch Light. ..Lebanon (0.) Star. ..Cincin- 
nati Gazette. ..Kennebeck (Me.) Journal. ..N. 
n. Statesman. ..Haverhill Gazette. ..Boston 
Sentinel. ..Boston Atlas. ..Boston Cbronotype 
...North American... Baltimore Patriot. ..Louis- 
ville Journal. ..Nashville Gazette. ..Mt. Car- 
mel Register and Tom Corwinin opposition. ..44-5 

Massachusetts. ..TTeiLSon of. 27 

Sets up for herself in 1814 28 

For kicking Louisiana out the Union 29 

Treasonable resolution.s inlS14 29 

Various treasonsonable e.xtracts, 1813-14 38 

Her treasonable Legislature in 1814 42 

Stealing Negroes, &c 130 

Gov. Andrew for proclamation... "buts," "ifs," 

&c... Forced Conscription 157 

Her Bill of Rights 244 

Draft in 296 

Madison, James, and iincoj?!... compared 35 

Madison, James. ..on Freedom 330 

On Emancipation 330 

On Liberty of the Press 328 

Madison, Tfi's... Democracy of 300 

Mann, Horace ...Disunion, Civil War, ic 91 

Mason, J. ^...Rebel...to M. D. Conway 96 

Disunion L»tterto Jeff. Davis 154 

Military Gover7iment... Tinn^s predicts.in lSi6 122 

"Modern Improvements'' . -Gen. Butler for 123 

Martin, Luther. ..on Compromises of the Constitu- 
tion., 127 to 129 

Mason, Geo...Predict3 fate of the Government 130 

Missouri Compromise. ..Clay and ^Jackson on 131 

Mob Inciters. ..Vi' ted on 151 

Military lYecsssiiy... Proclamation predicated on 155 

Ifeta^^ors... Abolitionists and Republicans the same,.. 183 

Jl/a«Mmiss!07!... National Intelligencer on 184 

Military Arrests. ..AThitr&Ty power. Banks on 190 

Republican confessions... Remarks on 229 to 234 



348 



INDEX. 



Military Despotism ...H&ye we uot a 203 

Military Interference. ..vrith electioQ iu Kentucky "281 

In Maryland, &c 283 

MartialLaw ..Judge Duer on 221 

Burnrside declares in Kentucky 280 

Monarchy. ..John Adams for 223 

Mah(miy...His case... Remarks on 229 to 2;34 

MaffnaCharta...\vTung from King John 246 

Judge Curtis on 251 

Vote in Congress on 265 

Mobbing Democrats, rfc... Chapter on 256 

Schenck's order Suppressing Papers... Ilascall 

to New York Express 256-V 

Republicans Mob Douglas. ..Green County, Wis- 
consin, Mob 257 

Disgraceful r.utrage 306 

Message. ..of Gov . Seymour on Rotten Boroughs 269 

Maryland Election ...Qoy . Bradford's Proclamation 282 

Milroy, Gen. ..on "Home Traitors" ; 288 

Mobile Rei/ister... Agrees with Radicals 291 

McClellan, G^)!... Denial of troops to 293 

3/i'«Me.to<(!... Democracy of... 299 

Miscellaneiiiis...f:fe chapter of. , 303 

Morgan. Geo. Z>...IIis Agency operations 313 

Mileage ,V/eaL.. "Reform" Congress S19 

Millic»is...npan Millions wasted 320 

McKinstry, >/«;.. .Trial of 321 

Mortgaged. .."^ie are all...Spaulding on. ..our Kational 

Debt 324 

McCtdloch... on new Currency 325 

N. 

Kegroes, fj-ec... Won't work in Africa 18 

Their character, by Lewis. ..Testimony of Sir H. 
Light. ..Capt. Hamilton's statement. ..Editor 
of N. y. Post on...Robt. Baird's Opinion. ..Ex 
Gov. Wood's experience. ..Sewell on Kingston 
...American Missionary on. ..American Anti- 
Slavery Society on. ..The Marriage Relation 

among, &c 19 

Kegro, the,and (?o(Z...Beecber's only hope 118 

iVe^)'0.5oWt€rPo?/cy... Abolition the object, &c 170 

Ae^'roiJi^r/i^s... Republican consistenc}'...Yote in Illi- 
nois and Wisconsin 262 

Negro Nobility ...IWrntTntions .304 

Negro ^j'Mfs^iori... Ex-President Filmore on 328 

Negroes... ^o\<\ by Abolitionists for Cotton 263 

Northern Confederacy...'^. E. clamors for 29 

iVewJ^n^Zajtt/.. .Treason of.. .Various extracts in proof. 38 

For the Slave Trade 129-30 

Nullification ...i^nmner pledges Kujiublican party for... 57 

Of Wisconsin. ..Chapter on 73 to 85 

Sumner in fiivor of. 92 

lnOhio...Wolcotton 117 

Person.al Liberty bills 188 

The animus admitted 1S9 

Nest Eggsof Treasr)n...'By whom laid luO-1 

National ITtrr Com7»jHpe... Roundhead con.'^piracy 114 

New York Hi ot... Weed one inciters of 151 

Netv Tori- y!('.^.f... Frauds in 284 

Compared with otherstates 2S4 

New York. ..Draft in Sth District 296 

Democracy of 298 

Frauds in Quota 2S4 

Neicsjxqxrrs <V!/^j;res.sed...Scheiick and Uascall 256-7 

Numherof 3/(;h... called fur by President 294 

National Democracy. ..Yheir position in 1863 '.i 300 

National Debt. ..a, "Blessing," &c 304 

Necessity ...JeSerson on pleaof 328 

Necessity. ..Tyrant'sPka... Sen. Trumbull on 329 

0. 

Opposing tilt: G'ovi/n/>u';j/.,.Numeruu5 extracts fiom 

Federal Press, Ac 37 to 43 

By Mr. Lincoln and others during Mexican war 43 

Various similar extracts 43 to "*5 

Orlem, Judge. ..llis letter on precipitating the war. .....51-2 

Oberlin BciCifcrs... Treasonable extracts.... 103-4 

Ohjectof the TTar... Congress. ..Crit. Res 150 

Chase at New.York maeting , 267 

0)-tfer3S... Real object of. 192 

Compared with Alien act 223-4 

Orlliodoxy and Heterodoxy. ..Th& dift'erence 268 

Ohio and iuifu... Army vote compared 278 

Opdyke. Mayor. ..VieM on "Sneaks" 296 

Opposiiioniv Law... The jsine in Wisconsin ., 82 



0/t JO. ..Democracy of. 298 

Outrage, Disgraceful... at Ho^eohel 306 

One /t?ca...Shaksperianand tragical illustration 333 

P. 

Proclam.ati(m...f>l Napolean abolishing slavery 13 

Fremont's... Indianapolis Sentinel,on 150 

Of Emancipation. ..Remarks. ..New York Tri- 
bune on .' 155 

Predictions of good tofollow 156 

of Emancipation. ..Unconstitutional. ..How the 
Radicals opposed the "Government" before 

the 138 to 162 

See false prophets 161-2 

In a nut shell. ..a test of Loyalty. ..Sen. Wilson's 

Address. ..Remarks on, <tc 163 

Lincoln admits "folly" of. 168 

Lincoln's Utica-Springfield letter 168 

Views of Englishmen on 171 

Confessed a failure 173 

Lord Dunmore's,during the Revolution 174 

Laws by, in England 235 

Lincoln vi. Lincoln 262 

Thurlow W«ed'i predictions 175 

of Got. Bradford. ..Maryland Election 282 

By Governors Seymour and Parker ...300-1 

of Amnesty. .. N. T. Round Table on 304 

Park, Mvngo...on free negroes in Africa 18 

Parties. ..'Hie three that formed the Con"!titunon 24 

Pelham...ll\a conspiracy for a Northern Confederacy 29-30 

Pugh, SenateiT... On couiprriniise 49 

Pott, N. Y. Evening... on Reinforcing Sumter 52 

Predictions... n{ speecy dispatch of Rebels 53 

Phillipt, K'c'nd*//...R<-publicanias a sectional party... 56 

On Kepublicans not a National party 91 

His nest egg of treason 100 

Don't believein battles 105 

Labored nineteen vears to destroy the Union... 105 

Thanks God for defeat 120 

On the " lickspittle" Administration 104 

On the rsnipage 104 

Phillip iif M.'cedon... Yovr he bribed the Athenians.-. 287 

Paine, Judge. ..iJinnion on Fugitive Law 76-7 

His testini'iny favoring Democrats 302 

Pillshury, i'ar/.«r... Treason of. 57 

Discourages enlistments 158 

Peac«...Greeiy advocates with Rebels. ..Weed replies, 

Ac 87 

Vote in Senate on Crittenden plan 95 

Chicago Tribune wouldn't yield an inch 95 

Republicans of Wisconsin reject all overtures 

for... 303 

Peace Ccngress. ..Vla-u of Adjustment 144 

7*i'A-«, F. J...." Tax, fight, and Emancipate" 90 

Pike, J. 5.... Xest egg of Treason 101 

P((rtyt'ini...Radicjls iirefer their principles to fifty Un- 
ions 89 

I'uritans... Chapter from the 108 

I'rotestants. ..Ven'ecute the Quakers 103 

Pr»phesies...Ot Eli Thayer, fulfilled 123 

Of Geo, Ma.son...fato of the Government. ..1787 130 

Of results, by Democrats 160 

Platfe/rm, C/iiciipo... Extract or plank from, &c 153 

Patriotism ...Money the foundation of, in Mass 157-8 

Greely on " grave doubts" 158 

Policy of the Uar... Republican papers on 159-60 

Wisconsin Journal on 164 

IVophets, false... 'Wendell Phillips, N. Y. .Speech. ..Na- 
tional Intelligencer, on .to 161-2 

J^ersonal Liberty .4ci5... In the Northern States 188 

Personal atid Legal Rights... T)it.n\el Webster on 218 

See Livingston's speech on the Alien Bill 223 

Prisons. ..Opening of thedoors of 238 

Cincinnati Prison full 240 

Policy, Negro .V'jZcZi'er... Abolition the object 170 

Provost Marshal... Vomers of.. .Journal of Commerce 

.; on 239 

Politico and the irar... Col Gilbert breaks up a Con- 

Tcntion 240 

Political use of the draft 296 

Discharge of Democratic disabled soldier 237 

Threats of the radicals. ..Boston Commonwealth 

endorses usurpations, Ac 289 

The D.r.aft as a means 296 

Personal Liberty ...Lord Campbell on 243 

Of the Roman Law 253 

Pant and the J2}ostles...On Personal Liberty 253 



INDEX. 



W 



Practice vs. Prcac/are//... Republican editors too good 

to fight 262 

Ptei!/ww...AflexiW» 273 

Purse and Sword. ..Va,trk\iKenTy and Clay on 273 

Proscription. ..Of Democrats. ..various proofs 279 

Poiitive Defiance to Law. ..Wisconsin liadicals 84 

Patriotism and Loyally. ..Of Damocrats 297-8 

Pennsylvania... XtemocrAcy of. 299 

Parker, Gov,...tlia Patriotic Proclamation 301 

Palmer, lion. II. i.... Patriotic speech, of. 301 

I\LhUcX)ebt...Qoi\.csf the war, Ac 304 

PlUindering and Frauds. ..See chapter on 307 

See roll of thieves 326 

Policy of Administration. ..Sen. Crittondon on 329 

Q. 

^ualer*. ..^Tiipped and branded 1C8 

Qiiota... Qreely's grave doubts 158 

Fraudi in New Yorli 284 

Compared with other States 285 

R. 

iJom?... Agitation of slavery in 9 

Bebdlion... The four...Shay'a...of 1832...the great Ab- 
olition. ..of 1S61 25 

Will the, Succeed? 805 

.Ket>o?trf''on. .. Rebellion m Wisconsin.. .the four Rebel- 
lions 73 

Complete chronological history of the Booth 

rebellion 74-77 

U. S. Supreme Court on. ...Judge Paine 76-7 

Wisconsin Republicans. ..the Rescue fund. ..rev- 
olutionary resolves, <tc 77 

Opposition to law a test. ..State Journal. ..Lloyd 
Garrison's opinion on constitutionality of the 

Fugitive Law 78 

Habeas Corjius for negroes. ..opposition to Gov- 
ernment a test 79 

Evidence of the conspiracy. ..Various extracts 
...Judge Smith. ..T. 0. Howe. ..the 7 Points... 

" Dissolution no Misfortune" 81 

Klkhorn Independent. ..Republicans of Racine 
...Judge Paine elected to oppose law. ..Gov't 

defied 82 

Republicans quote Southern Nullifiers...Gov'r 
Randall recommends resistance. ..Legislature 

responds 83 

Ltgislature " positively deSes" the government 
...Votes down proposition to abide by the laws 

andjudicial dfcisions 84 

Sen. Doolittle on Law and Habeas Corpus... 
Wis. Republicans and Hartford Convention - 
ists comjiared... South Carolina quotes Judge 

Smith 85 

In Kansas... Garrit Smith and others. ..Giddings 

for 03 

Redpath for, in Kansas. ..Greely on Nebraska 

Bill 93 

Rev.W. 0. Dnvall for..Rev. Dr. Lellowsfor sub- 
jugation, Ac 94 

K. C. Ingersoll for autocratic jiower 94 

Spirit of...Oberlin rescuers 103-4 

Programme of... St. Louis Anzicger 114 

Conspir.ators against President 115 

Spirit of taught by Chas. Sumnt-r 116 

The Round Head Conspiracy 112 

Startling Developments T... 113 

C. M. Clav would hang Democrats 121 

Carl Schurz for 122 

Doolittle charges his party with 261 

The Rottui Borough System 269 

Threats of the Radicals 288-9 

Republican pari y...Vhil\\\is declares Section.al 56 

List of Disloy.il ones 242 

Thieves and Plunderers 326 

Sectional..." national " struck out 122 

Preaching vs. Practice 261 

Lincoln vs. Lincoln. ..Nigger vs. Nigger 262 

Pevolutioni:ethe Covtrnmenl...'Wi». Republicans 66 

Republicans, TTVuffs anci jR.deraZs... Linked together 86 

In juxtaposition '... 2-58 

Rebels. ..Gveeiy pledged to aid 90 

And rioters. ..Greelv's Evangelists 103-4 

Their love for th,- Radicals 290-1 

Mubile Register and Richmond Ex. agree with 
Radicals 201 



Riddle, A. ff...No compromiae 90 

Rice, John Z/'... Radical views 91 

Riots....fn New York. ..Abolition conspiracy 102-3 

Weed on, inciters 151 

Ramsay, Gov. ..on " Legalized Treason" 115 

Rtstoration... Boston Commonwealth declares a crime 117 

Reconstruction. .. 'N . Y. Tribune, no wi.sh for 118 

Ben Butler for " modern improvements" 123 

N. Y. Tribune and Abolition journals on 161 

P. M. Gen. Blair at Rockville 176 

Reign of Terror. ..French nude of Punishment 199 

Law of suspected persons 246 

Roman Xaw... Personal liberty. ..Paul and his Perse- 
cutors 1 253 

Rotti-n Boroughs. ..Gov. Seymour on 269 

Roorbacks. ..Of Abolitionists, for efiect 287 

Rhode Island... ryraft in 296 

Record o/ /n/amy... Ohio Journal on frauds 316 

iJajcahVy... Expositions of Grimes' Committee 318 

Retrenchment, rf-c... Mileage steal 319 

Dawes on Republican 320 

Rights of the .S<«tM... President Harrison on 330 

s. 

)S?at'ec2/...Agitati»n in Home. ..Its consequences, <S:c 9 

Effects of agitation. ..Remote periods of its ex- 
istence. ..Bible references. ..No. of in', time of 
Claudius. ..Roman l.-vw concerning. ..Agitation 

of by uracchus, Ac 10 

Agitation of by Gracchus and others. ..Agita- 
tion, cause of downfall of Rome. ..Agitation 
in France. ..Destrciyed Greece, Ac. ..Statement 

of President Harnson 11 

Agitation in Constituent Assembly 12 

Effect of Agitation in St. Domingo. ..Various 

proofs from Allison's History 13 

Agitation of, in England 14 

Effect of Emancipation in West Indies 15 

V»rious statistical facts, extracts, &c 19, 20 

No defense of ..General conclusions 22-3 

Is it the cause of the War? 23 

Hartford Convention agitators 29 

A pretext fur dissolution in 1798 30 

Tilden on the cause of the War 45 

Gen. Jackson on agitation of.. .Clay, &c 48 

New England for slave trade 129 

Lincoln's Inaugural. ..No right to interfere 

with 149 

Message on same subject 150 

St. D(rmingo...Y.Scct of slavery agitation in 12-14 

Statistical. ..Effects of Emancipation in 14 

Scott, Gen. Winfield... On Know Nothingism 27 

Strong, Gov. ..Of Mass., "Board of War" 28 

Sectional iV<;'wfZt'cej...Aroused by Federals. ..by Mil. 

Sentinel 31 

Massaohusetts arouses 35 

South not worth a copper 118 

Sectional i-*arti>s... Washington warns against 48 

Republican, declared to be 56 

Sectional Agitation. ..3a.ck^o-K, Harrison and Clay on.. 48 
Sumter, /•*... Reinforcing... N. Y. Times, Tribune, 
Charleston Mercury, and Judge Orton on... 

Who begun thE fight? 61 

Sumner, C?ia.?...For muUifying law 57 

And again 92 

Revolutionary spirit of. 116 

Opens ball of revolution in 18tJ0...N. Y. Post 

and Wis. .Tournal on 153 

Toasted in Blair's speech at Rockville 178 

Sedition idiy... Objects and purposes of. 36 

No. 2. ..(Indemnity Act.") 109 

Shanks, J. P. ,S'. ...Radical views of. 91 

Stevens, 27iarf. ..Set negroes to shooting their ma.sters 91 

Declares Constitution an absurdity 116 

" Union as it was, God forbid" 151 

No Union as it was 94 

On enormous expenses 293 

Scivard, W. //....Vote on petition for dissolution 91 

Can arrest by ringiii'-' bell 116 

Declares Proclamation unconstitutional 1.58 

Geo. W. Jones w. .Jud^e Clerke 2.37 

Ask no question who shall govern us 266 

His testimony for the Democracy 302 

On free speech 328 

On emancipation and violence in 1S58 — his 
" last stage of conflict" — his justification for 
disunion 1"22 



350 



INDEX. 



Sedgwick, C. F. ...Irrepressibls ; 91 

Strong Government. ..Fedej'als for, sedition law, &c 35-6 

Spaulding, Rufus P.. .Fur diasolution 92 

i^innnr, Francis E—'S eat eggoftrsason 101 

Separation, ..VhiWipB would accept , 105 

Superstition and Intolerance. ..UeiBa.rks on, &• 107 

Soldiers Voiiiig ...See conspiracy , 115 

Dr. Lieber on 28S 

Slate Bights... S. P. Chase on l;!0 

jSecewiow... Senator Wade fpr — Southern responses 

thereto , 120 

Milw;aukee Sentinel admits would not have oc- 
curred under Democratic success 143 

Greeley advocates light of. 145 

Slave Trarfe... New England for. i 129 

•Schurz. CarJ... For Kevolution 122 

Telejjr^m to "strengthen our side" 143 

" Scaiteration Pofey"... Milwaukee Sentinel, Pitts-. 

burg Cfmmiclr, &c., on 166-7 

Servile Insurrection ...Gre&ltj on 173 

Smith, Cu?c6 i?... Pledges conservative policy..... „ 174 

State Suicide... V . M. G. Blair's speech on 176 

Robt. J. Walker on 329 

Solutions of the Slavery Question. ..JeSerson'a, Cal- 
houn's, and John Brown's, &c 185 

Spies. ..Sent out by Burnside 192 

Silence. ..A crime by Lincoln's code 222 

Star CAamter... Laws by Proclamation in England 235 

Somers, Lord. ..See Star Chamber 235 

Stone, Cen... His arbitrary arrest 236 

Suppressing Xcxvspup'rs...Boheuck.'s order— Hascall 

to New York Express 256-7 

Selling Negroes.. .'V or cotton 263 

tSallust... Kis motto, &c 269 

Seymour, Gov. I [or alio... On Rotten Boroughs 269 

Patriotic Proclamation 300 

Complimented by Stanton 303 

His patriotic letter to meeting in Orang* Co.... 329 
Stanton, S. ..V.... Boasts of electing Curtin 279 

Compliments Gov. Seymour 303 

Sdli, Cap*... Punished for voting Democratic ticket... 286 

"iSn«<its"...Thurlovr Weed on 296 

Shoddy and Frand... See chapter on 307 

Stealina ...Qe-aeraX mania for 311 

Holy ministers and Southern libraries 320 

Sivindling... Horse contracts. ..hook swindle 317 

At Cairo. ..Post Master 320 

The soldiers 322 

Hundreds of millions 323 

Statesmen. ..SoXevaa warnings of 327 

T. 

Treason. ..Oi the Federal clergy... Various •xtracts 

from, and Federal press, &c '. 27-8 

Also later S3 to 43 

Various extracts in proof of 54 to 67 

Abolitionism. ..Pamphlet Circular 60 

Gerrit Smith and Reeder... Kansas 63 

Various extracts relating to John Brown... 64 to 72 

Racine Rcpublicani, &c 82 

New York Tribune. ..Sundry extracts 86-7 

Rev. Conway on " higher standard" 89 

Boston Liberator discouraging enlistments 90 

Of various prominent Republicans 90 to 94 

M. D. Conway to Mason (Rebel) 95-0 

Speech of F. A. Conway in Congress 96-7 

His letter to New YurkTribune 98-9 

Nest eggs of. lOO-l 

Oberlin Rescuers, Ac 103-4 

Chicago Tribune. ..Union as itoughtt^ be. ..Bay- 
onets to defy the people 113 

Garrison burns the Constitution 118 

Phillips thanks God for defeat. ..N. Y. Tribune 

defies.General Government 130 

Chicago' Tribune. ..Rather dsfeat than victory 

under McClellan 154 

Terroris-»t... under Federalg, 1S14 38 

A'arious proofs of 34 

Ti/ran^s... Their first •ffort to seine powar 121 

Thayer, j;?i... objects and consequences of agitation . 123 
Tariff, Morrill. ..To stimuLite Sec«gsion...N. Y. Times 

andCiucinnati Commercial on 146 

N. Y. World and London Times on 147 

efl'ccts of a high tariff 30S 

Tod, Gov. ..Before Judge Van Trump 238 

Thomas, Adjutant General. ..forces soldiers to hur- 
ra for Negro policy 265 



Traitors, Home. ..Gen. Milroy on 2SS 

Threats, DiahoHcal... Army Resolutions 265 

Oen. Halleck on "ene.'xkiDg traitors" ,..266 

Senator Wilson 268 

To control elections, &c 286-7 

John Brough... Bullet vs. Ballot. ..of Army Poli- 
ticians 289 

Tuttle, (?<n... Army vote for, compared with that for 

Vallandigham 277-8 

7Voops...No. called for 294 

Tilton,Theo. ..Weeion. sneaking ;296 

Testimony. ..ot Republicans of Democratic loyalty 301 

Mr. Seward and Judge Paine 302 

Ta-rfs... Frauds, plundering. ..Chapter on 307 

Trea.iury, U. 5. ..Van Wyck on frauds in 312 

lAieues... Republican, and plunderers. ..N. Y. Tribune 

on 326 

Trumbull, Sen. ..on Tyrant's plea 329 

u. 

United States. ..Free and Slave. ..Statistics compared. ..20-1 

Vnderhill...A British Abolitionist's opinion 16, 20 

Union, t/^e... "Nothing but a sentiment to lacquer 4th 

of July Orations" lis 

No, with slave holders CO 

Tallandigham's resolutions voted down 87 

Abolition purpose to destroy 124 

Mr. Chase. ..Not worth fighting for 161 

Do Radicals desire to preserve? 293 

Union as it luas... Milwaukee Sentinel sneers at 32 

Thad. Stevens opposed to 94 

Garrison on "Bombs," &c.: 99 

Chicago Tribune. ..Old Abe on Ill 

"As it ought to be" 113 

Thad. Stevens. ..not with his consent 117 

Boston Commonwe.'vlthon...Bingham don't want 118 
"Hated by every Patriot". ..C. M. Clay, better 
recognize Confederacy than have...M. D. Con- 
way against the 119 

"Spot it," says C. M. Clay 122 

Thdd. Stevens. .."God forbid" 151 

Chicago Tribune on 165 

Usurpation o/ Potoer... Judge Duer on 261 

See Ed. Livingston's speecli on the Alien Bill, 

1798 223 

Mrs. Brinsmade and Mahony'a case 229-234 

See vote in Congress 255 

Also vote on inquiry as to military Governor of 

Dist of Col 262 

To carry elections. ..Endorsed and justified, 

though admitted 289 

Unlimfitedl'ower. ..JantByilla Gazette for 240 

l7m'on ieapuM... Machinery of.. .Sentiments ofinCin. 288 

V. 

Victory of our j47T««... Unbecoming a moral people 

to rejoice over 29 

VaUandigham... UiB Union resolutions voted down..... 87 

For law. Constitution, &c '. 118 

Case of.. .Order 88 192 

Charge and specifications 193 

Trial of... Testimony 193-198 

Protest. ..Finding and sentence. ..Gen'I remarks 

on 198 

Albany resolutions and letter to Lincoln 199 

•See correspondence relative to 199-217 

National Intelligencer on the law of the cape... 217 

Mr. Crittenden on , 219 

Certain Abolition papers on 219-20 

N. Y, World on Lincoln's defense 222 

See Livingston's speech on Alien Bill, 1798 223 

Hii acts compared with Republicans 341 

Army vote for him compared with that for Gen. 

Tuttle 277-8 

His letter to N. Y. Times. ..Views in Congress... 301 

Voting. ..In the Army. ..The Con.spiracy 115 

Capt. Sells punished for voting Democratic 286 

Dr. Lieber on soldier voting 288 

Democratic vote in loyal States 305 

Volunteering... Ko^ the Proclamation aided in Masia- «■ 

chusetts 157 

Fessenden and Wilson on 191 

A success 292 

Cameron's Eulogy on 294 

Vigorous Prosecution of the War. ..Beecher on 165-6 

Van Trump, Judge. ..Oa case of Todd and others 238 



INDEX. 



851 



Villainy... Defense of by Boston Commonwealtb 268 

Ficfc«6Mrg'... Discipline. ..Banishing females 305 

Van TFi/cfc... His testimony on FranJs 31.3 

Viissel Charter... J undB in 318 

w. 

War, the. ..Is slavery the cause of thc.Beecher on... 23 
Douglas on the cause. ..A. 11. StoTens on. ..Re- 
bel Iverson on. ..Lincoln's election no cause... 
Benjamin and Toombs on cause. ..Dates back 

of Sumter 24 

Object of the. ..Col. Stone admits abolition war 
...M. B. Lowiy on. ..Other extracts. ..Aboli- 
tion the object 59 

"Who precipitated. ..Judge Ortom's lett»r 51-2 

National committee on. ..See Round Uead con- 
spiracy 114 

Congress declares object of.. .Crittenden r»solu- 

tion 150 

Vallandigham would rote to support 301 

Cost of the 304 

War luith Jfeari'co... Opposition to. ..Various extracts. ..43-45 

War, CVi!ii...Kev. W. 0. Duvall praysfor 94 

War i^U'cy. ..Kepnblican papers on 159-60 

War Power. ..Within the constit«tion...Doolittle on... 261 

Washington... Irom his Farewell Address 48 

See also 327 

Wilmot, Z>av!'d... Blasphemous sentiments 91 

Webb, Jas. TF«<son...On "Fire and Sword" 92 



TFe6si«r,Z'«»iicL.. On liberty and despotism 3" 

On grasp of executive power 121 

On personal and legal rifhts 218 

On executiy* power 327 

From his great oration 328 

TT'w(;or?sVn....Nullificatinn... Chapter on 73 

Democracy of.. .Their loyalty, &c 299 

Eepublicang of, reject compromise 303 

do on compromise 140-142 

Weed, Thurlow... On Greeley 87 

Predictions on th« proclamation 175 

On "sneaks" 29G 

Wade, (Senator. ..No peace with slavery 91-2 

No Union between North and South 93 

Pledges Republican party to dissolution 120 

Wilson, Senator. ..Om agitation 92 

On proclamation 163 

On stopping enlistments 191 

On shooting copperheads 240 

Diabolical sentiments of 268 

Trt7i«r/orce... On Emancipation Proclamation 171 

Whiting, Solicitor. .."Opinion" on habeas corpus sus- 
pension 234 

Whigs, Federals and Republicans. ..Xn juxtaposition.. 258 

Warnings, &Zemn... Of great statesmen 327 

Walker, Robt. J...On State suicid* 329 

Y. 

Yancey, W. i...Di6nuion letter to Slaughter 154 



'^ 



4^ 



'6' 



